Stained glass artist Mark Hewson shares story of creative journey from his secluded studio on Torbay Hill

When stained glass is lit by the sun, it comes to life — a colourful, glittering thing. It is an old art form that can tell a story or change the mood of a room, and it is one that Mark Hewson loves. The Torbay artist has been working with glass for 35 years with his partner Paris Johansen. Self-taught in the craft, Hewson creates decorative, functional and architectural private and public artworks. His glass journey started in 1984 when the couple were building a small brick-veneer cottage. “(Paris) wanted a stained-glass window, so I looked into where I could get a stained-glass window made, who could do it for me and how to go about it, but no one could do it for me,” he said. “My beautiful woman said ‘well, you can do it yourself, you lazy bugger, you’re not working”, “I’ve been drawing since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, pictures and paintings. At school I was told to pursue a career because I’d never make a living out of art, so I thought ‘what the heck, it can’t be too hard to cut glass’.” Hewson’s have-a-go attitude turned out for the best as commissions materialised and the hobby became an occupation. By 1988, the business name Torbay Glass Studio was registered and almost 10 years later, he had a studio dedicated to the production and display of his art. The studio was in use by Christmas 1997 and the gallery was opened in 2004. With almost four decades of experience, Hewson has continued to hone his craft and learn new techniques. Painting, etching, casting, forming and lamp- working are all skills he has at his disposal. “I’ve done a couple of courses to learn a few things,” he said. “After reading a few books it wasn’t so hard — it’s just lots of practice, you make a lot of mistakes.” In 2006, Hewson was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study architectural glass techniques in Iceland, Europe, America and New Zealand. The next year, extensions to his Torbay studio and gallery gave him room to grow. Originally from a farm in the eastern Wheatbelt, Hewson also has experience building less delicate pieces, such as tractors and sheep sheds. With his background working with steel, he combines two mediums to create his masterpieces. The first time he worked with steel and glass was in 2013 when he completed a sculpture for the Albany Health Campus. Not only does it provide colour and beauty in a hospital setting, it also softens the sunlight. His most recent large-scale public art commission was a 12m stained-glass piece for Amity Rose Funerals. “It can be very time- consuming,” he said. “The challenge is to get it right and do something the customer is going to be happy with. I work with each customer to do what they are after. Everything is individual and they’ve got their personal touch in everything, “In the last 20 years, I’ve had no trouble pleasing people and still being happy with the design myself.” Nestled among the treetops of Torbay Hill, the glass master is never short of inspiration. “The birds really inspire us, the view and the whales we see out there,” Hewson said. “What I really enjoy is seeing the happiness in people’s faces when they see the glasswork we’ve made and that they’ve been involved with.”