Warwick Pascoe
About the artist
Warwick was born in Sydney where most his leisure and social life
revolved around the ocean. After qualifying as a draftsman he decided
drafting did not satisfy his creative urges and eventually left to
travel overseas via Darwin in 1978. On his return Warwick moved to the
Northern Territory. During a three year stay in Tennant Creek all of his
leisure time was devoted to developing skills as an airbrush artist. In
1989 he won the Tennant Creek art award as well as champion exhibit and
viewers choice award at the Tennant Creek show.
Encouraged by the response to his work Warwick returned to Sydney to
study art and graphic design. With a diploma in graphic design he
established a successful publishing business in Darwin.
Evolution of the technique
Whilst in Tennant Creek Warwick missed the ocean and began printing
brightly coloured tropical fish and marine-scapes, but he became
frustrated with the inadequacy of paint to convey the iridescent glow of
tropical marine fish. The images lacked the vitality he was searching
for. During his stay in Darwin he started experimenting with
sandblasting in 1994 and adapted some of his airbrushing techniques.
While experimenting with a large panel of glass he sculpted an image of
a seahorse into the back of the panel. After completion the light from a
nearby lamp caught the edge of the glass and travelled through it
illuminating the image from inside. This created a series of highlighted
contours and shadow areas giving the sculpted seahorse that iridescence
he had been searching for in his painting. The seahorses were a popular
and relatively simple image. With his acquired knowledge of marine
creatures accompanied by a large reference library he started
challenging himself with more and more complex images. Working with
these images he can predict how the light will play on the "caved"
shapes and lines creating illusions of depth of field. Each sculptured
panel required its own light source at the base to create the desired
effect and the wooden base containing the light has also evolved to
become an integral part of each sculpture.
Warwick has expanded his work with glass and is now incorporating the
use of kiln formed glass panels.
Successful exhibition include:
-
Winner 1989 Tennant Creek
art award
-
Winner 1999 Coolangatta
contemporary art prize
-
Invitation charity
exhibition in Coolangatta 1993
-
Invitation charity
exhibition of miniature paintings in Darwin 1995
-
Invitation charity
exhibition in Darwin 1996
-
Warwick held his first
major exhibition of his glass and timber sculptures, as part of the
Darwin fringe festival in 1996
-
Culminations exhibition -
Byron Artisan's Gallery- Byron Bay 1996
-
Artist in residence -
Hamilton Island - November 1997 to Feb 1998
-
Artist in residence -
Hamilton Island - November 1998 to Feb 1999
Corporate clients include
Telstra, Channel 10, Schneider, as well as the Institute of Engineers
Northern Division, the University of Sydney, Primary Industries and
Fisheries and the NSW Restaurant and Catering Awards
