Butler artist recreates church windows in painting series
BUTLER TWP — Like many churches, the North Main Street Church of God has stained-glass windows depicting religious imagery and stories in vibrant colors.
Looking at most of the windows around the church however, will not be a view to the outdoors, but a glimpse into the creative mind of Sue Burtner, an artist who painted stained-glass windows in Butler churches and hung them around the church.
Burtner started the “Throw the Doors Open Wide” painting series around 2020, when COVID-19 lockdowns prevented people from attending church normally for some time. Burtner said making the paintings was a way to capture church imagery from her home.
“As an artist, you’re drawn to visual things and to color. And so they’re just so rich and they tell stories,” Burtner said. “’Throw the Doors Open Wide,’ the point was it was COVID and we couldn't go anywhere.”
Nine paintings are part of the “Throw the Doors Open Wide” series, and they are based on stained-glass windows from First United Methodist, Covenant United Presbyterian, St. Peter’s Anglican, St. Andrew’s United Presbyterian, St. Peter Roman Catholic, First English Lutheran, Westminster Presbyterian, Grace @ Calvary Lutheran and North Main Street churches.
Burtner said May 1 at the church that she also added elements to each window that were physical representations of her interpretation of their meanings, like lambs or people. She explained that doing a project on stained-glass windows from different types of churches was fun and even educational to her, because she noticed different symbols and even different design priorities they each used in their windows.
“The churches will have all different styles of windows,” Burtner said. “Some of them have pictures, but the Presbyterians didn’t do images so much in their stained glass, so you would go in there and it’s just pink.”
Burtner estimated each painting took more than 20 hours to complete, with some of the larger ones taking even longer. On the back of each painting, Burtner wrote the number of hours each painting took, because it became hard for her to remember the process.
A retired art teacher, Burtner said she would get in a creative flow and would lose track of time while the painting came along brushstroke by brushstroke.
Burtner would paint these windows in her home, using photos she took of each window with her cellphone.
“I tended to make a straight on view,” Burtner said.
She said the attention to detail required to paint a still life subject helped her notice some design elements subtly placed on the real stained-glass windows. For instance, some of the windows had outlines of the Ichthys, or Jesus Fish, separating colors on windows.
The final result of Burtner’s hours of work per painting were images that reflected the real life stained-glass windows, which also include additional elements added by Burtner. She likened painting stained glass on a canvass to doing a puzzle, where the colored pieces of the window have to line up with its painted counterpart.
“In doing these, it’s like a puzzle. I enjoyed trying to figure it out,” Burtner said. “I tried to be accurate. They’re not going to be perfect, but I try to be accurate.”
Burtner said she hopes the level of detail she put in her paintings help other people examine the meaning behind the art depicted in stained-glass windows, because they have significance, even beyond their images.
“A lot of the stained-glass windows were put in the churches because people couldn’t read,” Burtner said. “There is so much symbolism in the windows, I don’t think people always realize. They need someone to teach them.”
There are only three stained-glass windows in North Main Street Church of God. One is a small window near the church’s administrative office transferred from the church’s original location on Main Street in Butler; another, a larger piece in the church’s sanctuary; and the last, a large vertical-style portrait of Jesus made with thick Dalle de verre glass.
Dave Wilson, administrative pastor at North Main Street Church of God, has been described as the church’s resident historian.
“The window is from 1963, when this building was originally built. That would have actually been the balcony,” Wilson said. “There’s remnants, there’s a cross that’s in the sanctuary and that had been on the other end of the building, and that was from 1963.”
One of Burtner’s favorite stained-glass windows, and her favorite painting, is entitled “A Son is Given,” which is based on a stained-glass window at what was most recently known as Grace @ Calvary Church on Diamond Street in Butler. The piece depicts several windows in one painting and Burtner said it has some family history to it.
“This is the church my dad went to when I was a kid,” Burtner said. “It’s a Presbyterian Church, so they don’t really have a lot of images, but they have one of Mary and Jesus.”
