Fragments of Light

Monthly Archives: November 2017

Seeing More Than Meets the Eye

British glass artist, Peter Layton, has been blowing glass for over forty years. His love of color and form has sometimes been inspired by the work of painters like Monet or Gauguin.

Peter Layton, Cascade. ©Ester Segarra. www.e-segarra.com

Glass is a magical medium . . . I adore it, it’s so versatile and it is so immediate. Blown work is incredibly satisfying . . . because it is a fluid medium you have to make decisions very quickly . . . its the immediacy that I love about it.—Peter Layton

Peter Layton, Monet Series. ©2012 Ester Segarra. www.e-segarra.com

Peter Layton, Tahiti Series. ©Ester Segarra. www.e-segarra.com

Layton’s pieces delight the eye as they reveal a transient moment frozen in time. Looking at these works can you see continuing dynamic transformation in their final static amorphous state? How can an artist show something more than the eye sees?

Artist Bio
Born in Prague and brought up in England, Peter Layton studied at Bradford College of Art and the Central School of Art and Design, London. During the mid 60’s, while teaching ceramics at the University of Iowa, he chanced upon glassblowing. On his return to England he set up a small glassblowing studio at his pottery in Scotland; a Glassblowing Department at Hornsey College of Art and in 1976 he established his London Glassblowing Workshop in Rotherhithe.

View a video of the artist at work at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s85hI6bxJlQ