glass
Lou Pendergrast-Mathieson
Lou graduated from Unitec in Auckland in 1988 with a BA majoring in glass casting. She went on to get a teaching diploma in 2000 and has been working with glass ever since. Lou has exhibited in Australia, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. She has been selected as a finalist in Ranamok three times, and was also a finalist in the International Bombay Sapphire Glass prize.
Lou continues to teach glass casting at community arts level.
Lou has a passion for the Art Deco era, and her work is influenced by the glass of the 1920-1930’s, with the soft finishes and engraved surface details. The decoration often made reference to the gardens of the time.
Today her work expresses her continued interest in the decorative embellishment of objects combined with a love of the New Zealand landscape.
These remnants that she uses to ‘dress’ the object work as referents and symbols of New Zealand native plant specimens and nostalgic flowers from the garden.
She likes to express herself with drawing and has found a way to do this on the surface of the glass by carving before the form goes into the kiln and then during the finishing process, when the work is near completion, she engraves fine detail on the surface.
Each piece captures light and refracts it through the highly polished surface.
Lou continues to teach glass casting at community arts level.
Lou has a passion for the Art Deco era, and her work is influenced by the glass of the 1920-1930’s, with the soft finishes and engraved surface details. The decoration often made reference to the gardens of the time.
Today her work expresses her continued interest in the decorative embellishment of objects combined with a love of the New Zealand landscape.
These remnants that she uses to ‘dress’ the object work as referents and symbols of New Zealand native plant specimens and nostalgic flowers from the garden.
She likes to express herself with drawing and has found a way to do this on the surface of the glass by carving before the form goes into the kiln and then during the finishing process, when the work is near completion, she engraves fine detail on the surface.
Each piece captures light and refracts it through the highly polished surface.
