Local artist Robert P. Horan creates display for DMNH

Posted by Press Release on December 5, 2012

In conjunction with the Delaware Museum of Natural History's special exhibit Rainforest Adventure, Chadds Ford, PA-based artist Robert P. Horan has created a dramatic four-panel stained glass piece, on display through January 6.

Horan's initial plans to design a piece in conjunction with the Museum's fall exhibit, Rainforest Adventure, were big — about 8 feet tall. Early renderings had four stained glass panels, each the height of the Museum's patio windows, with four smaller panels across the top of the windows. The piece that Horan ended up creating is smaller, but no less impressive.

819 — Two Kinkajous disturb a beehive made up of 190 individually carved and hand painted bees in stained glass artist Robert P. Horan's rainforest scene at the Delaware Museum of Natural History. (Courtesy image)

Horan, of Pennsbury Township, is currently near completion of the work, which will be on display for the duration of Rainforest Adventure. The four glass panels are ¾ scale and depict a rainforest scene with animals such as the jaguar, kinkajou, white-tailed trogon, and scarlet macaw, as well as plants such as the blue orchid.

While the pieces are designed to be viewed in sequence, they are just as beautiful individually. "Each piece is a critical piece of the puzzle," says Horan. "But they can easily stand on their own." The work contains no lead, as with traditional stained glass, and is held together using a special silicone that expands and bonds between the various layers of glass.

The piece has been in production for over four months, with Horan spending hours creating a scene that appears as if it could be a photograph. In a corner of one of the panels, a bee hive comes to life with 190 hand-painted, exquisitely detailed bees that Horan carved individually. Each panel is made up of two or three layers of glass, created at different temperatures and using various paints and oils.

Horan has been creating works of stained glass for over ten years, getting his start after suffering a back injury and needing something to occupy his time. A welder by trade, he began studying stained glass techniques first under artist Joe Bateman and then with Chadds Ford artist Steve Vernon. His circular, stained glass piece depicting a Northern Shoveler duck was used as the cover art for the Museum's 2010 Annual Report. The piece is a combination of colored and painted glass, but adhering more closely to the traditional stained glass techniques used for centuries.

For more information on Robert Horan or to see other examples of his work, visit www.antiquityglass.com.

Main photo: Stained glass artist Robert P. Horan spent four months creating a lifelike rainforest scene in a series of four intricate panels for the Delaware Museum of Natural History's Rainforest Adventure exhibit. (Courtesy image)