Window of the Week: Polychrome

Inspired by John R. Neill's 1909 full page illustration in L. Frank Baum's book The Road To Oz, Polychrome was created as a showroom window in 2013. The window depicts Polychrome, one of the daughters of the rainbow, returning home after her adventures in the Land of Oz. With her sisters in attendance to welcome her back, Polychrome's father reaches down and gently lifts her back up into her rainbow. The completed window is in a private collection.

Few things in nature are as colorful as a rainbow, which made this a perfect subject for a stained glass window. Bill Campbell painstakingly selected the glass for this window with the bright shifting colors of the rainbow being echoed with more intensity in Polychrome's flowing gown. The overall color scheme was carefully blended so the colors shifted into one another. The faces of each figure were hand painted and kiln fired several times to achieve the correct look and feel. The finished window brings Neill's black and white illustration to life with an explosion of color.