Ron Van Der Vlugt

Artist Profile

Education and Career

1988-1991 - California Art Glass Studio, USA
August 1990 - Advanced Fused Glass Course, Pacific Glass, USA
1991-1993 - Fusion Art Glass Studio, Gisborne. Self-employed
1992 - Commercial Art Adult Student, Gisborne Boys High School
1993 - Wanganui Polytechnic, Glassblowing and Production
1994-1995 - Toyoma Institute of Glass Art, JapanGraduate Student, Glass Blowing Major
May 1995 - Hoglund Glass, Nelson
1996 - Blown Glass Studio, New Plymouth
February 1997 - Pacific Light, International Art Glass Conference, Auckland
1997-1999 - Research and building of the de FLUTE Glass Studio, Rotorua June 2002 - GAS - Glass Art Society of America, International Glass Conference, Amsterdam, Holland.
May 2005 - GAS - International Glass Conference, Adelaide, Australia

Exhibitions and Awards

October 1988 - Trish White Gallery, Stained Glass
June 1990 - Gisborne Artists Winter Exhibition
November 1990 - "Focus on Glass", Art Glass Association of Southern California, San Diego - Best 1st time entry award
October 1993 - "Glass Blowing and Casting", Fine Arts Centre Wanganui
March 1995 - Graduation Exhibition, Shimizu Plaza Gallery, Toyama, Japan
September 1999 - Opening Exhibition, de Flute Glass Studio & Gallery, Rotorua
August 2003 - Rotorua Artists Biennial Exhibition
June 2004 - Ashburton Society of Arts, Annual Exhibition, Guest Artist
September 2005 - Rotorua Artists Biennial Exhibition, Judges Nomination

A life-long fascination with moving colour and light motivates glass blower Ron van der Vlugt. His work has a sense of movement, an instant of fluid light and colour frozen in glass. As a child Ron experimented in the dark with torches and pieces of coloured plastic from car tail lights. As a glass blower, he is intrigued by the elusive challenge of capturing the shifting qualities of light and colour as the glass moves from a glowing, flowing, molten state into a cool, hard, solid shape. Like the Italian glass blowers, Ron works "hot and fast" with few tools, working the glass quickly while it is fluid and hot, relying on the natural forces of gravity and spinning to shape it. He says this makes him more in tune with the glass, so that while he doesn?t always control the tricky medium, at least he understands it. Ron developed his art first in the US, at California Art Glass, then the Wanganui Glass Blowing School, and the Toyama Institute of Glass Art in Japan where he was exposed to Japanese aesthetics and the sophisticated techniques of the Italians. Ron now works from his own De Flute Glass studio in Rotorua.