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Camera IconCredit: Ross Swanborough\/The West Australian, Vaughn Bisschops, Glass Artist with his piece called, Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens, at his studio in Nedlands, Perth.<\/p>\nVaughn Bisschops stained-glass artworks can be spotted across the western suburbs.<\/p>\n
From hospitals and churches to home doorways and heritage shopfronts, his work is one of skill and technique \u2014 constructing and restoring antique stained glass that comes together in a fragmented kaleidoscope of colours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts completely traditional stained glass artwork, a practice that\u2019s been around for well over 1000 years,\u201d Bisschops said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s partly what I fell in love with: It\u2019s a craft that has never changed, never gotten quicker. The whole process is exactly what it was. So it\u2019s fascinating in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bisschops hadn\u2019t always been an expert in the trade, having travelled across Europe working as a chef for the first 15 years of his adulthood.<\/p>\n
But his adoration for the craft emerged through his travels and passing ancient cathedrals with their technicolour stories woven into glass<\/p>\n
\u201cIts weird to think back then I was just admiring them from the outside… I would of never of thought I\u2019d be making a career out of it, like I am now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Camera IconCredit: Ross Swanborough\/The West Australian, Vaughn Bisschops, Glass Artist with his piece called, Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens, at his studio in Nedlands, Perth.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I guess it was a sort of calling then, without even knowing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bisschops started to teach himself with the little resources available to him at the time. But what started out as a hobby for a year or so, soon turned into a full-time gig.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no classes and no training in glass painting. So I bought a book on how to paint on glass, and basically called it my bible,\u201d Bisschops laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that first year, my wife jokingly said to me \u2018you\u2019ll be doing church windows soon\u2019, and I said, \u2018don\u2019t be so ridiculous\u2019. But weirdly enough that turned into a reality only a few years later.\u201d<\/p>\n
He first exhibited at Cottesloe\u2019s Sculpture by the Sea in 2013, with a beautiful window sculpture featuring a whale shark that he called \u201cTransparent Sea\u201d.<\/p>\n
Now, 13 years later, Bisschops is returning with his latest work titled \u201cHeaven is a place where nothing ever happens\u201d \u2014 a piece that reflects on his relationship with religion after so many years of working and creating around it.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeep down for me, it\u2019s a piece that sort of plays with religion, mother nature and my interpretation of heaven,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCottesloe, or pretty much anywhere in Australia, to me, is heaven… so the windows are bit of a play on religion and the fact that we\u2019re blessed here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The piece took about a year to create from conception to execution, and stands four metres tall by one metre wide.<\/p>\n
It will be installed at the top of the grass hill at the entrance of Cottesloe Beach, overlooking much of the month-long exhibition spread along the beach and beachfront.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am definitely excited, and I\u2019m definitely nervous,\u201d Bisschops said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a sculpture artist you never really know what it will look like until it\u2019s in position. But I\u2019m confident that it\u2019s worked exactly the way that I envisioned, so I hope it\u2019s amazing and people enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bisschops\u2019 piece is one of more than 70 sculptures coming to Cottesloe Beach on March 6.<\/p>\n