Lee, Cathy
Stevens Competition Commission Winner 2023 and 2024
Cathy Lee is the proud winner of the Stevens Competition Commission for 2023 and 2024. In 2023 she also won the First Prize and the George and Evelyn Gee prize for craftsmanship.
The 2023 Stevens Competition was a co-operation between the Glaziers’ and Mercers’ Company to create two architectural glass panels to be installed in the contemporary reception area of the Whittington Building in the City of London. The design reflects the Mercer’s history and its purpose. It is heavily influenced by the interior design within the reception area and the buildings around it. It was installed in March 2024 and will be able to be seen by people walking along the new alley in Frederick’s Place when work is completed on the neighbouring building.
The Artistic Statement accompanying the entry is here.
The 2024 Stevens Competition brief was to create an artificially illuminated stained glass panel for the dining room of The Oriental Club in the heart of the City of Westminster. The circular, planet-like features of the panel are inspired by the Adam’s style interior design on the ceilings. Other features within the stained glass celebrate the Club’s appreciation of tea and elephants. The work has now been adapted in response to the new interior design and situation within the club. It is currently being fabricated and is due to be installed at the end of 2024.
The Artistic Statement accompanying the entry is here.
In 2023 Cathy Lee won the Ashton Hill Award which provides the opportunity to learn skills in the areas of glass painting and conservation with experienced practitioners in the industry.
See more of her work at www.cathyleeglass.com or on Instagram @cathyleeglass
Artistic development
Cathy Lee has an extensive artistic background. She completed the ‘Art Foundation’ course at Chelsea College of Art in 1996/97. This provided her with a year of artistic experimentation. Many years later she received a MA in History of Art from Birkbeck College, University of London. More recently she has taken classes at the King’s School of Traditional Art, mostly learning gilding techniques but also egg tempera, marquetry, geometry and wood inlay (which she finds “surprisingly similar to glazing”). She learned Heraldry at Reigate College of Art with Gerald Mynott and verre eglomisé with Rian Kanduth at City and Guilds of London Art School. She is currently studying for the Certificate / Diploma at the Royal School of Needlework. As this list suggests, she believe other arts and crafts can influence her glass practice.
Away from stained glass Cathy Lee works as a family mediator and a qualified London Guide (City, Westminster and Blue Badge). She also makes podcasts (having been a journalist) about unusual sites in London. She says a particular pleasure has been sharing the stained-glass treasures of the churches in the City of London with visitors. It is London; its people, geography and architecture, that inspires most of her stained glass work. The work she is presently designing focuses on social issues that she witnesses as a mediator and has experienced as a journalist.
Since 2018 her glass practice has been guided by the Piotr Frac Stained Glass Worksop in East London, which has allowed her to “quietly and enthusiastically study the transformative craft of glazing and painting”. The commission from the Mercer’s Company was her first major commission and she says it has “given me confidence and encouragement to illuminate windows for buildings and spaces that need them and to encourage others to break into (not literally) the world of stained glass.”
The Worshipful Company of Glaziers and the Stevens Competition
The Worshipful Company of Glaziers first appears in written records in 1364-65 during the reign of Edward III, when the emphasis was on the protection of the personal economic welfare of Glaziers. However, in recent times the focus has shifted to the preservation of the heritage of stained glass and to the support of education in architectural glass art, design and conservation.
In 1932 the Company launched an annual competition for young artists, which from 1972 operated under the banner of the Stevens Competition. The competition provided an opportunity for aspiring architectural glass artists, designers, and craftsmen to compete in a format which simulated the process typically undertaken in order to obtain a commercial commission.