ARCHIVED BULLETIN ARTICLES; Terrance Plowright
BULLETIN ARTICLES: Terrance Plowright.
By Katherine Harrington.
Terrance
Plowright’s works are found all over Australia and overseas. His works are
realistically figurative as well as abstractly modern and they can be huge in
size. Large scale does not deter Terrance, his Westfield Paramatta mural is
about 22 metres high (pic 2). Predominantly Terrance works in sculpture, but he
also creates murals, stained glass and
ecclesiastical furniture including lecturns, fonts and altars. Terrance will
also embrace different materials; he is currently working with LED lights and water clear polyurethane.
Terrance grew up in Blakehurst, south of Sydney in
a home full of brothers and sisters, and a constant stream of visitors. He has
a background in music having studied privately for a short period at the Sydney
Conservatorium and was a lead singer and rhythm guitarist in a number of bands.
His first job was in publishing as a copy boy; he was later a film editor with
the ABC. When he was 18 he became interested in science, philosophy and the
question, ‘what is consciousness?’ and in 1975
founded the Awareness Centre in Chatswood offering workshops around the subject of human
potential and the human spirit. The Awareness Centre was hugely successful for
many years; but closed around 2000.
During all these years he had very little interest
in art. In 1982 a friend asked him if he would make a stained glass window for
his house. He told his friend he had mucked about with drawing and model
aeroplanes in his youth, the sum total of his artistic experience and that he
was mad to ask him. Terrance did in fact design and build his friend’s stained
glass window; and this is where his art career began; word spread about his
stained glass designs and very soon many commissions followed. Not long after
that Terrance became interested in sculpture.
His interest in science, philosophy and the human
consciousness he maintains effects his thinking, how he communicates with
people as well as his art. He is respectful of other people, and he is
facinated by what we are all capable of. He is enamoured and inspired by the work
of Albert Einstein, physicist, John Wheeler, biologist, Rupert Sheldrake as
well as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, some work by
John Cage; Turner, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, Moore, Rodin, Brancusi,
Giacometti and many others
When I last spoke to Terrance, he talked about the
Super Hadron Collider. His interest in
science is not just in its achievements
but in the very essence of the universe - the Big Bang Theory and evolution
from that point in time. In essence he said we are just atoms; everything is
connected. He went on to say that “some scientists within the field of mathematics/Chaos
theory and climate have gone as far as
to say that the gravitational force of a single electron at the end of the universe actually affects
our weather.” Through his work he aims to convey this idea of
interconnectiveness; hence the relationship themes in his work. The Meriton
Fountain in Chatswood (pic 4) is a plant like stucture with two human figures,
inspired by his idea that we are inseparable from nature.
Terrance lives with his family in Wentworth Falls
on 2 acres in the lower Blue Mountains.
He and his wife Shirley designed the home they are living in, although with
considerable help from a local architect. The house was built by Terrance and
Shirley with some help from builders. He also designed his studio (pic 5) with
help from the same architect, situated about 50 metres from the family home; a
magnificent structure of two storeys, 500 square metres with an undulating roof
(his idea) and tonnes of glass. His home and studio comprise 26,000 mud bricks,
all of which he and his family made.
Our
President Jenny Green was among those members who visited Terrance’s studio
last month as part of our organised studio visits. This is her account of what
she saw and of Terrance’s talk...
Terrance Plowright’s
studio is full of projects – a
combination of commissions and works for exhibition. He mainly works on
commission though some works were earmarked for our Darling Park exhibition. Terrance told us his ‘bread and butter’ is figurative work. His studio was awash with
figures – a family group was being moulded in silicone, and Henry Parkes stood
in the corner (pic 7).
Typically his figurative
sculptures are cast in bronze, they are modelled in oil based clay, then
silicone moulds taken, followed by the creation of wax versions of the original
clay. An oversized figure such as Richie
Benaud can’t be cast in one piece – it would be sent to the foundry as
approximately 12 wax pieces. Once cast
they are then returned to Terrance for welding together and finishing; Terrance
does his own detailing and patinations. Among his figures were fabulous
abstract works in stainless steel. He
has the equipment to roll stainless tube and rod, numerous welders and probably
every type of finishing equipment available.
He is currently working on a contemporary stainless steel sculpture for
Waverley council.
Terrance said he typically
starts his sculptures with a drawing, in fact, many drawings. He will make a
maquette to show clients but he can equally leap into large scale work
immediately.
How can one man do all
this you ask? Well he does work 60-70 hours a week, and he has some assistants
who work with him when needed – a welder, an apprentice, someone who works on
the mouldings/waxes and a protégé. Asked what direction his work will take, he
is currently looking into string theory.
Pic 1: Terrance Plowright beside a tubular steel sculpture,

Pic 2:
Mural, Paramatta Westfield, craft wood and polymer paint; 24 m.

Pic 3: Stained
glass window in St Bernadette’s, Castle Hill, 11 x 3m (detail).

Pic 4:
Meriton Fountain, Chatswood, cast resin and fibreglass 5m;

Pic 5: Terrance’s studio;

Pic 6: Sculpture in
progress with drawing behind as a guide;

Pic 7: Clay works in progress
including a family group some in silicone and some in clay; Sir Henry Parkes in
background right and Terrance again beside a tubular steel sculpture.

Photographs by:
Shirley Plowright, Eva Chant and Wolfgang Gowin