Brilliant – right level of info and plenty of workshop time to practise

Amazing, very knowledgeable, very good experience

Jonathan is such an excellent teacher and a fount of knowledge. I thoroughly enjoyed the course. Owen and Stacey also so friendly and knowledgeable

It was a pleasure to take part in the masterclasses. For me as a beginner in glass painting, this was a completely unique experience. During these seven days, I learned a lot of information but it was constructive. Jonathan is a wonderful teacher and a man of his craft!

It was so informative and a good mix of information/history/background/practical. I am looking forward to going away and experimenting and developing this skill. Jonathan was very interesting and encouraging. Thank you!

Really enjoyed our week’s work. Everyone very helpful. Jonathan is a great teacher and easy to talk to.

I cannot fault Jonathan Cooke’s masterclass. Friendly and insightful. I have obtained so much from this class, even though it was a huge learning curve. Everything was made available while doing the course, which ran smoothly with the experienced help of Owen and Stacey. I found it to be just perfect in numbers of students, hours, practical and theory.

The course was perfectly pitched for me. Lots of information and note taking in the morning, casual enough to allow interruptions and discussions, but focussed enough to allow me to absorb the knowledge and experience Jonathan shared with us. The afternoons were spent experimenting ourselves with glass paints and different mediums, and layering the paint up to produce various contrasting effects.

The joy of Jonathan’s teaching is that although a skilled practitioner and restorer himself, he allows you to ‘go with the flow’ of your own style, and to discover how the techniques he demonstrates can transform your own work. It was a real freedom to be able to do this, and not slavishly copy someone else’s template. He is exceptionally generous with his time, a very patient teacher, unfazed by spillage/endless questions/your own poor equipment, and has a gentle, puckish sense of humour.

I found the three and a bit days interesting, a valuable intense period of learning, a treat to have a clear, clean area to work and experiment, and money very well spent.

Lovely to meet you both. I had such a good time and am sad in some ways it’s finished. However, am very much looking forward to starting painting and keep it going.
I thought Jonathan delivered an amazing three days, and he is such a good teacher.

Wonderful! Such helpful generous supportive staff. I thought the format was ace. Onslaught of info in morning followed by hands on…til late…Good that it was non-prescriptive. More of same, please.

thought it was brilliant – couldn’t fault it. Jonathan is amazing and everyone was very supportive.

The course was so wonderful! I think that Jonathan is a great teacher and also patient, very kind and encouraging. I learned so much in these three days! What I also appreciated is that he explained why sometimes things don’t work and what to do about it.

Thank you for all the knowledge you have shared with me and all the skills you have given me over the last three days, I have learned enough to keep me practising for a lifetime! You have also inspired me immensely and given me the confidence to work harder on my own art…

Really great! I enjoyed every minute and learned so much. Have learned a lot not only about glass painting, but the history, construction of windows in the past and present.

Great, really informative, lots of info

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the course, everybody has been extremely helpful and informative. With opportunities to access information and facilities in the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course. A lot of information to absorb and now time to practice. I can imagine I would want to attend a refresher course in a year or so.

This was a wonderful course and I wish it had been possible for me to do the full six days. I’ve learned so much over the two and a half days and Jonathan is a wonderfully knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher. Thank you so much!

Wonderful, inspiring, informative valuable course with an excellent teacher with helpful and diligent back up from the AGC team. Loved it.

A really good experience. I learned so much in a short time about techniques for mixing and using glass paints with more tips than I expected a professional to give away

This was one of the best courses I have been on. Jonathan Cooke is an exceptional tutor with huge knowledge and experience of his subject. This made a great difference to my learning experience, where he taught us many skills and techniques from mixing right through to the finished piece. Can’t recommend this course highly enough.

Loved it, Jonathan is a genius at getting the best out of his students..

Jonathan is such a welcoming, helpful and knowledgeable tutor, happy to go through the information as many times as needed, explaining things in different ways. He is able to answer any question about brushes, paints, mediums, application (anything you can think of) with very specific and helpful answers. What I have learned on this course will transform the way I paint on glass and hugely improve the results I can achieve.

The course structure was great, with information and demonstration in the mornings and time to practice new techniques in the afternoon. The techniques are taught in a logical order with time to try each element out before learning the next.

As well as being very useful, the course was extremely enjoyable and well supported by the fantastic staff at Swansea University.

What a privilege it has been to spend these past three days with Jonathan, a remarkable man…!

He has been so generous in sharing his incredible knowledge, meticulous in conveying its application and patient with my incessant questions and chat. I now have so much to absorb and practice, that if I do nothing else it will feel like a life well spent! I know that sounds extreme but I am still on a high after the experience…

Caryl Hallett, stained glass artist:
carylhallettstainedglass.co.uk

I just wanted to email to say how much I enjoyed the glass painting course held in Swansea recently. I was only able to attend the first part, glass painting, and am planning to attend the further workshops in stains and enamels next year … I don’t consider myself a very ‘artistic’ person, having not had training or practice in technique, and … have tended to focus on the more technical and scientific side of things, but the course has given me confidence to try different things in glass painting and inspired me to practice more. It’s also already helping me to examine glass painting in a way I hadn’t fully appreciated, allowing me to have a greater understanding of the techniques used when looking at historic examples. So I just wanted to email you and say thank you.

Firstly, thanks to everyone involved on the course and for letting me stay behind to finish painting – I really appreciate that. I have learnt so much it is too hard to put into words. Jonathan is a magic tutor, with a very un-intimidating outlook on painting, the approach to the course was perfect, I really understood my brushes and how they work, and I am proud of what I achieved in 7 days: I feel confident, inspired and excited to start exploring with painting….

You guys really do have a fantastic atmosphere in the uni, so thank you to you all for every thing, no matter how small. It was an invaluable experience

It was brilliant to learn directly from Jonathan Cooke, never have I had such an eager, passionate and attentive teacher who held nothing back in relaying information.  

Dear Jonathan,
I enjoyed your class at the Wheaton Arts Center in May of 2013 so much. I have come to regard it as the high point and “gold standard” of my experience of painting on glass (I began four years ago). The concepts and techniques that I learned from you would be essential to anyone interested in developing a classical approach to stained glass painting. Particularly notable was your detailed and lucid explanation of the sequence for painting on glass, from the vinegar matte, to the scrubbing out of the light, to the tracing, to the last layer with oil. Your criterion for evaluating painting mediums for glass was also very insightful and useful. As someone who has been a professional artist and teacher of painting and drawing for many years, I felt extremely fortunate to be in the presence of a kindred spirit. Not only did you know what you were teaching so very well, but you did so with a passion and vigor that was admirable and inspiring. You were generous in loaning and giving out your supplies and without exception you were patient and pleasant with us all. In short, the class was great, and I will remember you always.

Thank you so much!
Manny Cosentino, Artist, Stained Glass Painter, Judson Studios  

I had a great time and Jonathan was a wonderful teacher!

We thoroughly enjoyed the course and the welcoming environment of the university. 

Jonathan is such a dedicated teacher and inspired us all. What a pleasure to have such a tutor!  

An excellent workshop… 

As a novice to glass painting, I thoroughly enjoyed Jonathan’s workshop – it was an eye opener for me!