News – marleneherbst

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Entry for the Buckhorn Festival of the Arts, August 20, 2023

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Entry for the Buckhorn Festival of the Arts, October 7, 2021

Lakefield fused-glass Artist opens first exhibit

BY JACLYN WITHERLY

Talented Lakefield artist Marlene Herbst has opened her first solo exhibition in Peterborough.

Her unique blend of fused glass and paintings brightened up the Kawartha Artists’ Gallery from June 9 to June 20.

Herbst has been painting for almost 50 years and has also been designing stained glass windows for Robert McCausland Limited, a Toronto based company for 25 years. She designs windows for churches, synagogues, hospitals and private homes.

Herbst has always been fascinated by science, medicine, religion, art and philosophy. She combines them all into brilliant works of mixed media art made of painted surfaces with different materials added such as fused glass, mirrors, shells, feathers and tree bark.

“Art, science and religion all come from the same source – they question what life is all about and try to discover how the universe unfolded,” Herbst muses. “and all three disciplines involve creativity.” Her paintings are largely inspired by nature and are beautifully surreal. She has created pieces with trees, birds, constellations, fish and many of them have fused glass or three dimensional objects added on top.

“I love nature as most artists do, but rather than painting the beautiful scene or still life in front of my eyes, I look for more. I’m always imagining something beyond the scene that makes it special and precious. The painting is always a metaphor for a deeper meaning.”

One of her prominent pieces is a hanging, fused glass painting made to look like a stained glass window. The design was based on light, time and equilibrium. The image is a religious image made to look as if it’s opened in the computer program Photoshop,

with the toolbox and icons all open. She says she was playing on the idea of how light animates old stained glass windows in churches and as the day wears on, different lighting brings alive the stories of the bible. Nowadays computers and television, which are also a light source, is what brings stories to life. The piece is a representation of fused glass as well as older days fused with modern days.

The opening was a success, many friends and family came to support. Herbst says she hopes to do more shows in the future.

“I’m kind of transitioning into being a solo artist. I want to retire from designing stained glass windows and concentrate more on my own work.”