St Nicholas, Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland

Leonard Evetts is an artist who I became interested in after seeing his work in All Saints Church in Porthcawl whilst I was a student. I was fascinated by his distinctive graphic design-led painterly style. He also used beautiful hand blown clear glass in areas of no painting so that the whole window had a feeling of being valued.

Bishopwearmouth features an amazingly rare large scheme of windows from this artist; 46 windows designed and made at various points between 1958 and 1998 (the very last realised posthumously). They show Evetts’ style as it moves from purely narrative and symbolic to abstract figurative and to almost pure abstraction. This fact alone is a reason to go and see these windows, but additionally there is the pure joy of seeing the artist’s skills as a draftsman, water-colourist and calligrapher translated into playful and utterly meaningful iconography expertly controlled as a personal visual language that pulsates across the windows. Surely a treat.