Carved Glass Humpback Whale

The Byron Bay Arts and Industry Park in the far north of New South Wales, Australia attracts a lot of interesting and inspiring people, both artists and those in search of art. Not too long ago a couple walked in to Warwick's gallery and asked if it was possible to produce an arched window 2.5m high, featuring a breaching whale, finely detailed, more carved than etched, to catch light and look alive. They were serious, and wanted some serious art for their harbour-side home in Sydney. The challenge was set.

To work a huge panel of glass in detail with no mistakes is a challenge. Warwick needed a ‘pass-through’ booth, one with a slot through the middle, and rollers to move the 170 kgs of glass into position as he carved his art across the surface. He had a booth ready to modify sitting idle at the workshop of a friend. His friend in turn sat idle in a wheelchair after a head-on collision with an international tourist driving on the wrong side of the road. Warwick took to welding under the direction of his disabled mentor, and completed the custom booth in six weeks.

The basic design of the window came together over some months, Breaching Whale With Water Splashes, but the detail had to be perfect. With many close up whale images and the assistance of local artist Rebecca Kilpatrick, the intricate detail of the design was captured, scanned and printed at full size.The paper copy was placed under the glass on a work table and the task of transferring the layout to the glass panel began.

Warwick’s unique photo-masking technique enables ultra fine detail, this would be employed later to recreate the splash and some of the finer detail on the head. The whale needed more depth, more glass carving than Warwick had previously attempted, to emulate the powerful organic curves of a whale. Glass is an unforgiving medium - there can be no mistakes. "It was slow going and I became impatient at times, a signal to stop. I needed to remain absolutely focused the whole time I was working." In quiet mornings and evenings Warwick spent ten weeks with the sand blaster and diamond sandpaper forming and perfecting the whale. "It is a meditative discipline, that artistic head-space to which many artists are addicted."

With the solid body of the whale sculpted, Warwick spent a couple of weeks carefully polishing some of the frosted surfaces back towards clear glass, to enhance the play of light and texture. The froth of flying water was captured using courser grain sand blasting.

"Being in the presence of the whale window is both awe-inspiring and intriguing" - Lucas G, Suffolk Park

This first photograph - edge-lit in the studio