Artist/Designer: Stephen Adam

Location: Kilwinning Abbey

Subject: St Paul

Date: 1903

Photographer: Ian Holland

Adam was an architect and stained glass window designer; he went to Cannonmills School (with Robert Louis Stevenson) and then Haldane Academy, where he was awarded a silver medal for the best design for a stained glass panel. He “displayed artistic inclinations at an early age” says the Scotsman. He started his stained glass career with James Ballantine (as Ballantine & Allan) in Edinburgh and was sponsored as a student by the Trustees Academy. As a result, Daniel Cottier recruited him, which was very influential in his approach. “In design I have been greatly influenced by the works of Rossetti, Burne-Jones, William Morris and Puvis de Chavannes; and, if I may speak confidently of my work as a Colourist, in Colour I found my master in the late Daniel Cottier, the eminent glass painter“.