Life in Color & Light

Step into a world of color and craftsmanship at Thompson Stained Glass Studio, where every piece of stained glass is a masterpiece waiting to transform your space.

Located in iconic Door County, Wisconsin, Thompson Stained Glass Studio has been dedicated to bringing light and beauty into public and private spaces through the timeless art of stained glass.

With more than fifty years of artistic experience, Thompson infuses each creation with a unique combination of artistic insight and deliberate design.

Thompson works exclusively with hand-cut glass, chosen for its richness, texture, and interplay with light. Each piece of glass is considered for how it will respond to sunlight, how it will change from morning to evening, and how it will interact with neighboring shapes and colors.

More than a technician, Thompson is a designer at heart.

Not just a portfolio, but a voice

What sets Thompson apart is the way his work resists easy categorization. Some windows evoke the natural world — rolling hills, winding rivers, bursts of sky. Others dive into abstraction, inviting viewers to feel rather than name what they see. And then there are those inspired by literature and memory, reflecting a deeply personal, imaginative realm.

Over the years, he’s developed not just a portfolio, but a voice. At the heart of his work is a rare gift: the ability to create windows that people don’t just look at — they connect with. That mindset has carried Thompson through decades of commissions, ranging from chapels and libraries to private homes and large-scale installations. 

NORTH AMERICAN WOOD DUCK was commissioned by J.L.Wade of the Grigsville Bird Museum & Publishing House - “The Purple Martin Junction."

Yet, perhaps equally influential, Thompson points to the masterworks of Louis C. Tiffany a century ago as a principal guiding inspiration. He believes that Tiffany made colossal strides in raising stained glass to a recognized medium of fine art.

Thompson is interested in carrying on this tradition of creating more than decorative art.

A.k.a. Don Thompson

A.k.a Donaldo

About the Artist Donald R. Thompson

Early Recognition

Just two years into his career as a stained glass artist, Thompson, a Western Illinois University alum, was commissioned to reflect the creative vision behind the design of the university's library.

Drawing on his background in psychology, Thompson designed the window to represent the brain’s two hemispheres — the left side for logic and analysis, the right side for creativity and expression.

The piece was created as a conceptual statement: a call to reimagine how we think, learn, and value both intellect and creativity. It was meant to be viewed for its meaning, not just its beauty.

The window remains a permanent fixture, admired for its symbolism, execution, and its place in an environment of higher learning.

SERENITY Window

Laying Glass-on-Glass...

Another critical advancement in Thompson’s career as a glass artist took form within the development of The SERENITY window for the McDonough District Hospital chapel in Macomb, Illinois.

Intended to potentially offer emotional solace to those in time of crisis, the 8 ft. x 4 ft. SERENITY window is comprised of nearly 2,400 individual pieces of glass. Furthermore, in order to satisfy the optical challenges in accomplishing the desired impact of his vision, Thompson began to engage a new technique of actually layering glass-on-glass!

Thompson has come to reference this process as cold-pouring in producing truly unique depth of color and/or texture. In some areas of the work, SERENITY actually has three layers of glass.

Thompson has subsequently gone on to employ this technique throughout his career. From the initial design meetings with the hospital’s steering committee, to successful installation in the hospital chapel, this 125 lb. panel, additionally framed in 11”, 150yr old vintage barn flooring planks, called for almost four years of Thompson’s focus.

Art isn’t bound by rules.

Creativity in technique is perhaps just as important as creativity in conceptual design.  

An artist’s ability to embrace human form, is perhaps critically significant towards achieving legacy-level masterwork recognition. During the period of time in which Thompson was creating the fantastic SERENITY window, he was introduced to a potential sponsor for just such an opportunity.

Showing a definite interest in sponsoring something truly unique in glass, design discussions soon unfolded between the sponsor and artist! Their mutual decision was to feature life-like nudity, while employing a truly original approach on Thompson’s behalf. In order to achieve such dynamic results in the portrayal of a more lifelike human form,

Thompson would free-form sandblast/carve each individual piece of diamond-cut flesh tone glass, prior to assembly. Primarily by incorporating this approach, he was able to create nude form without utilizing the age-old techniques of applying opaque kiln-fired flesh-tone paints onto the glass. 

Soon, work began on a 4ft diameter circular panel depicting a remarkable underwater mythological vision, featuring two beautiful mermaids.

Ultimately titled NEPTUNE’S PALACE.

Perhaps Thompson’s most highly regarded signature piece in realism is “MONA," developed in answer to a specific commission asking him to produce the Monarch Butterfly in stained glass. Thompson began to study the magnificent, magical symmetry inherent to the Monarch’s cosmetic anatomy, and soon he made the following commitment: to create this Monarch butterfly, such that the structural lead caming would be virtually invisible.

The flight of a butterfly!

NORTH AMERICAN WOOD DUCK (framed triptyque) - 40” x 16” - 1978

TWO HEMISPHERES OF THE BRAIN

(Diptyque) - 4ft x 3 ft each - 1979

Sponsor and Thompson regarding MONA

SERENITY (framed) 10ft x 6ft - 1984

NEPTUNE’S PALACE - 46”diameter - 1985

UNITED 747 (framed) - 3ft x 2ft - 1995

ISLE DE CORSE - 6ft x 4ft - 2005

MONA (framed) - 29” x 21” - 2000

This piece framed is 2ft x 3ft. It was commissioned in 1995 by a United 747 pilot, Captain Clifford Ehorn. "I want you to make my airplane in glass!" 

It eventually was displayed for six months at the United Airlines head office in Elk Grove Village, Illinois (described in United's employee publication below).

Thompson: “Living in Northern Door County, Monarch butterflies are a revered part of our natural ecology. One day early in my design work for this commission, I light-heartedly asked God if He would perhaps lend me a Monarch to study it more closely for a while. As I arrived at the studio, a proud Monarch was perched right on a flower at the entrance! 

I carefully offered my hand, and next I knew the monarch butterfly was flying free in the studio. Soon to be named Mona, she lived with us for nearly three months! -My Model.” 

At this point in time looking forward, one of Thompson’s primary goals is to create a fanciful vision in stained glass of Eve in The Garden, applying all of his signature techniques that have developed throughout the course of his career.  

“I’ve entertained this design theme and concept for a long time. Only at this point, do I now feel worthy to embrace such a supreme challenge.”   

-Donald Robert Thompson

flight of the butterfly

Thompson’s stained glass windows often give you a different perspective on the world.

This window evolved as the result of another very unique commission installation. Designed to visually augment a full-size pipe organ, and specifically requested to be abstract in its presentation, GRATTE-CIELS is positioned directly above the organ pipes. “Gratte-ciel" is the French word for “skyscraper!”

GRATTE-CIELS - 52” X 42” trapezoid - 1987

The ISLE DE CORSE Window was designed for installation at the Door County Bakery llc, known for their trademark bread - CORSICA LOAF™ and CORSICA STIX™. The Bakery installed this window intent on influencing the ambience at the bakery with the beautiful Mediterranean Island of Corsica!