Thomas Denny: East Window
Title: East Window
Artist: Thomas Denny (b. 1956, British)
Location: St John’s Tisbury, Wiltshire
Date: 2025
This work was awarded the A+C Award for a permanent art commission within the building or grounds of a place of worship in the UK 2026.
“Heading to Tisbury in Wiltshire,we experienced Thomas Denny’s stained-glass East Window at St John the Baptist, completed in 2024 and dedicated in early 2025. It replaced a Victorian window that was in a poor and fragile condition and beyond restoration. It is, according to Denny, “as perfect a site for a new work of art as could be found. The materials and techniques have largely been the same as those found in the church’s other Victorian windows, or indeed to be seen in 14th century glass”.
The theme of the window is ‘seeing’, interpreted here as “seeing the glory of God, and the epiphanies in ordinary and extraordinary moments in life”. The window bursts with stories, both biblical and local, with figures standing “transfixed by the mystery and meaning of their surroundings”. The story of the Transfiguration is expressed in the centre of the window, while renewal of sight, actual or metaphorical, is the subject of other scenes. Landscape recurs throughout, depicted with an intensity that evokes the work of Samuel Palmer. A continuous horizon suggests Salisbury Plain, scattered with clumps of trees and barrows; nature is abundant; and the ground is scattered with a rich layering of time.
The elements making up the window were fired and made by the Glazing Department at Salisbury Cathedral. The project was achieved through grants and many individual donations, some made in memory of loved ones. We saw the prototype of a book that will record the names of donors and personal epitaphs that have been written, a reflection of the commitment of local people involved in realising the project and their deep engagement with, and affection for, it.”
(Bryan Biggs reporting for the Art + Christianity Award for a permanent art commission within the building or grounds of a place of worship in the UK)
Thomas Denny (b. 1956, British) is a leading British stained glass artist. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art and now lives in Dorset. His work can be seen in around thirty British churches and cathedrals.
His windows are noted for the distinctive way in which light and colour move across the surface. He achieves this remarkable effect by acid etching and silver staining each small piece of glass, which results in very subtle colour distinctions. In an interview with Ann Wroe for 1843 (formerly Intelligent Life), Denny explained that ‘beauty in its own right’ determines his use of colour, rather than any symbolic significance. Likewise his detailed depiction of natural objects such as in his Bolton Percy window, are simply ‘nature expressing the glory of God, or perhaps the “insideness” of God in creation.’
See more information here.
Photography by James O. Davies
Further information
Medium: Stained glass
Size: tbc
Permanent display
See Denny’s East Window on the Ecclesiart map here.
Commissioner: St John’s Tisbury, Wiltshire
Other artworks in churches by Thomas Denny: Durham Cathedral, St John’s, Tralee, Co Kerry; St Peter’s, Wallsend; Leicester Cathedral; St Paul’s, Shurdington; St James’s, Stanstead Abbots; All Saints’, Woodford, Wilts., St Catherine’s College Chapel, Cambridge; St Edburga’s, Leigh; St Hedda’s, Egdon Bridge; St Mary’s, Temple Guiting; St Michael’s, Abenhall; St Peter’s, Ipsley; St Margaret’s, Millington; Sunderland Minster; Hereford Cathedral; Malvern Priory; St Peter’s, Martley; Tewkesbury Abbey; Three Windows of Light; Grafton Underwood Parish Church. See more information here.
For further comment on Denny’s stained glass see Visit Stained Glass, which is an online showcase for some of Britain’s finest stained glass windows.