Stain Glass Repair: Artist Takes New directions

Humble TX, After recently been hired by a local leaded glass repair shop to match and repaint a small panel, to match what is part of a of a large 8\’ X 8 glass stain window of a church in Sugarland, TX. And after having done the repair and having worked with the translucent paints used to simulate stain glass he got excited about the paints and is now creating glass stain art.

AAA Leaded Glass Repair, from Humble, Texas, repaired the broken glass section, then hired Gatica, an airbrush artist to come in a match the colors and paint pattern to the rest of the large window panel. The spot repaired was small, only about the 10 X 12 inches but the damaged panel was part of an extended arm painted on the panel.

What Gatica does with his ability is facilitate the repair process for leaded glass repair companies because instead of cutting out intricate pieces of glass to repair a damaged panel, Gatica can come in and repaint the design to match the existing painting. This saves a lot of time and reduces the expense of the repair for the leaded glass company doing the repair.

The paints used are translucent paints made specifically for use on glass – to simulate the stain glass effect used by stain glass artist or shops. Traditionally, the way they compose an art piece is they cut the assorted color pieces as they compose the art on the stain glass and then tie it all together with the leaded glass lines that essentially weld the pieces together. You see most of this type of art in chrches. Those pieces are quite intricate and expensive.

To paint on glass, you have to have patience because depending on the humidity level and the temperature it may take a few minutes to a couple of hours for the paint to settle and dry before you are able to continue working, and painting in between coats, to compose the design or to build up the paint to match the existing colors, in case of doing a repair.

After doing this repair, Gatica got interested in creating and painting on glass. By using the translucent glass paints he can paint to create art on glass. The only difference between the traditional, decorative glass art found in churches and is that there are no leaded lines on Gatica\’s art.

New Directions: “Every time I go into a new directions it is because I get the chance to create with a new medium mostly paints, that I have always wanted to try or had the idea to use in the future. Last time I got excited was when I had the opportunity to work with the urethane paints used for painting automobiles, a few years ago. Since then I have created some interesting airbrushed metal painted panels” says Gatica.

Gatica has over twenty years experience painting, repairing and creating art, including murals, for commercial and private clients. Gatica specializes color matching. He has repaired art and murals by matching colors, textures to a larger piece. When doing a repair of this sort the artist has to be able to analyze the painting and apply colors to match the existing art. With Gatica\’s photo retouching experience this is not too hard since he has been airbrush painting all his life and it goes back to the time when airbrushes were used to do repairs on photos, posters. This is mainly where he got the experience to be able to do the art repairs.

Author Bio: Artist Ray Gatica was recently hired to repair a stain glass window and after working with the glass paints has led him to start experimenting and painting on glass.The results are similar to glass stain art without the leaded line. You can see results at http://www.MuralsandBigArt.com or www.GaticaArt.

Category: Arts and Crafts
Keywords: Stained Repainting and repair, Houston TX, , repair stained glass