Before the abandoned church at Stockyard Hill was knocked down to make way for a wind farm site office, Noel Orval poked through the remains looking for stained glass.
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In 1963, his father Jean, or John, finished the magnificent stained glass window of the Good Shepherd, dedicated to John and Cecillia Kirkpatrick by their children.
It was one of hundreds of windows and artworks that appear across Victoria, and while many are still in churches and businesses, some are becoming harder to find.
Noel has made it his mission to make sure his father is recognised for his work, and he was lucky enough to get his hands on the lower quarter of the Good Shepherd window.
"That was all that was left, the rest had been blown out by the wind," he said.
"I collected bits that were still reasonable, they're in my front (window), and I've got a few pieces in a box, but I thought rather than pull it to bits, I'll leave it the way it is as a bit of a shrine."
Originally from Holland, Jean Orval's art reflects a medieval style, showing saints as almost pre-Renaissance icons.
In Ballarat, his work is at St Andrew's Kirk on Sturt Street, and in Wendouree at St Matthew's, but it can be spotted in many places across western Victoria.
He was based in Hamilton, working on meticulously detailed mosaics - Noel said he has hundreds of concept sketches and photographs at his home in Delacombe, many of which he has put on a website.
"Dad left me most of this stuff," he said.
"There's a plethora of stuff, the website's only the start and there's a lot of history I want to add to it yet.
"I get correspondence from all over the world."
While Jean died in 1987, Noel is confident his father's legacy will live on, because so much of his work is in heritage-protected churches.
"His first commission was at St Mary's Church (in Hamilton), which is one of his biggest commissions, 2500 pieces, that set him up a bit," he said.
"I can't think of any artist, or craftsman in Australia, from a little country town like Hamilton, that's dominated the scene like that.
"Dad's was all unique, the way he portrayed figures was sort of Byzantian type - the one at Yarram, in Gippsland, it's a beauty, it's more like a mosaic.
"I forget how many pieces he put into it, but they're all small fractions of glass and it's incredibly difficult to put it all together."
Given the years of archiving, and the stockpile of sketches and correspondence, Noel said he think it'd make a great art exhibition in a gallery, especially with the surviving fragments he's collected like the Good Shepherd from Stockyard Hill.
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