When Gillian Clooney takes to glass with her brush and her paints, she brings a sense of cheerful magic and transformation to a once transparent vessel.
“Whenever I’m in my studio I paint, and when I paint, I’m in my happy place,” says Gillian, a retired nursing sister who spends her days embracing her inner artist in solitude, bar the soundtracks of her favourite musicians, and the Cape Robin-Chats who pop in to visit.
As she shows us around the cosy loft of her home that has become her studio, on the Phezulu Estate in Assagay, she describes her little glass-painting empire as organised chaos. Crammed full of painted and unpainted glasses and mugs, boxes, art materials and tools, bubble wrap, photography lights … even a table-top oven to bake her artwork.
“I feel calm up here, even though it’s my workplace. With the doors always open, I get plenty of natural light and listen to music all day. The only thing I’m missing is more space for plants, but I overlook part of my garden, where I often see impala, wildebeest, zebra, and the occasional warthog passing by – which more than makes up for it.”
While giving the Robins a little treat, Gillian chats to us about her work and inspiration and the projects that she’s working on.
“I’ve always had a knack for art, especially drawing. Creativity runs in our family as my mother was incredible at sketching with Indian ink, and my sister and I spent our childhood doodling and drawing cartoon characters. I once took oil painting classes, though it was so long ago I barely remember when,” says Gillian, who also dabbled in jewellery making.
“I used to make and design polymer clay jewellery using loads of different mediums such as Indian inks, chalks, different paint mediums and resin. I loved it. And then life happened,” she says.
Gillian set off for the United Arab Emirates where she spent 20 years in nursing at an all-women’s hospital, specialising in maternity and neonatal intensive care. During this time, she married John, a military college instructor, and the couple frequently travelled between his post and South Africa due to family ties.
“I started painting on glass about 15 years ago as a hobby after a trip to South Africa, where I bought my sister some hand-painted Christmas glasses – she loves unique glassware. I figured I could paint something similar. My first design was ridiculously difficult, but it turned out better than I expected, and I still laugh about it. But the more I painted, the better I got, and eventually I began selling my work at markets in the UAE.”
In 2019, Gillian and John retired and returned to SA, where she unpacked her boxes and rekindled her creativity.
“I decided to pursue art full-time, initially focusing on jewellery making, but eventually, I found myself drawn back to glass art.”
When Gillian and John are not walking outdoors, swimming, 4x4ing and trout fishing in Boston KZN, you will find her in the kitchen trying out new recipes as she loves cooking and braaiing with friends and family. Another pastime she enjoys, when she doesn’t have a glass in one hand and a paintbrush in the other, is taking drives through the game reserve they live on.
Drawing inspiration from her surroundings, she paints on all types of drinking glasses, using water-based glass paints, a selection of fine brushes and some other weird and wonderful tools, before each piece is baked to seal the design. Her themed collections, with Christmas usually being a hoot, range from wild animals, abstract stuff and special figures and caricatures, which are either funny, cute or beautiful, and each one is tastefully done. She even, at times, adds a little bling into the mix.
“I get many ideas from customer requests and social media, and sometimes I come across an image and visualise how it would look on glass. A neighbour once asked me to paint a giraffe. The reference image resembled a watercolour painting, and I remember thinking it would be challenging. But from that one piece, I went on to create a whole series of giraffes with different facial expressions, and they became my best sellers!”
Gillian’s creations known, as Art on a Glass, cost between R275 and R480, and can be found at a handful of local markets – Fig Tree Farm, Hillcrest Country Market and Shongweni Farmers and Craft Market, particularly during the main school holidays, public holidays and over the festive season.
Details: You can follow her socials FB gillian.clooney, IG: @gillianclooney, or to keep up to date with her latest creations and where she’s exhibiting, or to get in touch, you can WhatsApp: 063 918 7629 or e-mail: gillclooney@hotmail.com
