By Aurélie Wellenstein and Josette Trublard, translated by Ghislaine Beyel and Steve et Karen Linn

Unlike the picture painter who creates nuances with pigments, the painter on glass plays with translucency. Working with a black and brown matter called “grisaille”, the painter on glass tints the glass playing with opacity and translucency and distributes shadow and light. Through tracing, hatching, and relief painting, the art of painting with grisaille has developed throughout centuries, improving with silver stain and the precious Jean Cousin, as you will understand by watching our film. Traditional grisailles are made of a mixture of pigment, metallic oxides such as iron or copper, and ground glass enabling the pigment to adhere to the glass after firing to a specific temperature. Grisaille colours range from brown to black but the painter on glass has the possibility of widening the colour palette by using different oxides.

The lessons we propose here are based on Josette Trublard’s artistic personal vision and do not pretend to establish an absolute method.