Shaped by the Sea

Permanent Collections

Anne Meredith Barry Peter Bell Sylvia Bendzsa David Blackwood Wally Brants Manfred Buchheit Sid Butt Diana Dabinett Cecil Day Jerry Evans Scott Fillier Conrad Furey Scott Goudie Pam Hall Jim Hansen Gilbert Hay Tish Holland Graham Howcroft Ilse Hughes Josephina Kalleo Kathleen Knowling Christine Koch Frank Lapointe Ray Mackie More artists...

Glossary of Print
Making Techniques

Agnl Artwork Index

...I am a graphic designer rather than a painter. I like things to have a good, hard, clearly defined edge to them - to be stark - and have a black and white, unambiguous character.
- Graham Howcroft, 1987

From Graham Howcroft: Stained Glass Designer, The Newfoundland Herald, April 14, 1987, p.26.

Graham Howcroft was born in Blackpool, England, in 1944. He studied architectural drawing and design at Blackpool College of Art and glassblowing at Harris College of Art and Technology, Lancashire. In 1968 he received the A.D. Wood award for outstanding craftsmanship at the British Society of Glassblowers national competition.

Between 1969 and 1973, Howcroft lived in Newfoundland making laboratory equipment for Memorial University of Newfoundland. He developed an interest in stained glass and returned to England in 1974, where he spent more than a year researching its history and techniques, while working at the University of Manchester making advanced scientific instruments.

His approach to stained glass is traditional in technique but modern in imagery. Howcroft's awareness of the emotional element of glass is expressed through careful selection of glass colour, surface and angled edges.

Famous Artist at the Ship Inn 1989 Stained Glass 73.5 x 53 cm (32KB)

Returning to Newfoundland in 1977, Howcroft studied humanities at Memorial University for a year and opened a stained glass studio in St. John's in 1979. Since then he has concentrated on restoring existing stained glass windows and creating his own work which ranges from decorative panels to windows for churches and secular spaces.

Howcroft has executed numerous commissions and in addition to being part of the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador's Permanent Collection, his work is in a variety of public and private collections including the Centre for Newfoundland Studies (CNS) at Memorial University's library, for which Howcroft erected a stained glass wall in the autumn of 1994. This commission was in memory of the late Agnes O'Dea, the CNS founder.

For more information on the artist, or to view more of his images, please visit his personal web page: http://www.graphicstation.nf.ca/howcroft.html