“While traveling the continents of the world
conducting field studies of various culture’s art and
crafts, I had the opportunity to experience the beauty of
the earth’s picturesque seas. These experiences
turned my focus from painting and designing on canvas to
kiln-formed, painted and hand manipulated glass art.
Glass fusing and glass slumping are popular terms for the
kiln-forming of glass objects. Fusing and slumping of glass
was known to the Egyptians and Persians around 4,000 to
5,000 years ago – at least 2,000 years before the
advent of glassblowing by the Romans in the first century
AD.
Long known and practiced in the Orient, reverse painting
enjoyed its greatest popularity in America during the early
1800’s. This unusual art form requires the artist to
paint the design on one side of the glass while it will be
viewed from the other.
Warm glass, being a solid liquid and transparent, enables
me to express the feeling, design, and beauty, which is
inherent in large bodies of water. Such natural beauty does
not need any additions on my part. But within the sphere of
a clear piece of glass I then have the authority to release
my creative touch. This solid liquid form reminds me
continuously of the freedom one experiences while in or
upon the water.
Charles Donaldson’ work includes permanent
installations at the Los Angles Equestrian Center, The
Congressional Country Club, and the Victory Valley Museum
in California. His work has also been shown at museums
worldwide.