ParaQuad News

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4 ParaQuad News • Issue 1 Autumn 2016
feature
e is so passionate about his work
that he estimates spending 10-12
hours a day painting in a spare
bedroom which he converted into
a studio. The former high school teacher
takes his sketchpad everywhere he goes,
planning and capturing ideas for his next
piece of work and in his own words, he
‘can’t get enough’.
Pete received assistance from ParaQuad
NSW, winning a scholarship to complete
a Master of Fine Arts at Sydney University,
after he broke his neck in a surfing accident
three years ago. It was September 2012
when Pete took his last wave of the day at
North Bondi and things went wrong. Pete
sustained a C7 spinal cord injury and whilst
in hospital, made the decision to return to
study.
“I had always painted in my spare time
and had plans to exhibit but never had time
to enter...after my accident all I had was
time,” Pete said.
“I heard about the ParaQuad scholarship
program when I was in hospital, so I
applied to return to uni when I was in
hospital and contacted ParaQuad. I was an
artist and art teacher before my accident
and after much practice, I have finally
managed to relearn my craft.”
Pete had to develop new strategies to
approach the canvas and taught himself
new ways of doing things, “without
even trying to, you find new ways to do
something, it was more of an automatic
learning process”. He now uses a different
grip and says it takes time to create his
artwork, which can be neither too big or
small for him to successfully work on,
around 1m x 1.5m.
Looking at some of Pete’s artwork, it is
evident where much of his early inspiration
came from after his accident, “I focus on
satirising the world around me and focus
on politics and life in a wheelchair.
I produce large works in oil paints and
small illustrations in watercolour and ink.
“I try to get my message across in a
funny way, taking a satirical look at the
problems everyone in a wheelchair faces.
It’s like a nod of acknowledgement to other
people who are in chairs but I also like the
idea of educating someone who doesn’t
know about spinal cord injury.
“My work is always very allegorical,
trying to tell a story. I always loved
satirical cartoons and my uni project
was about that. I would go out on the
weekend and the conversation would
inevitably get around to the wheelchair;
most people didn’t know I suffer from the
heat because I can’t sweat, for instance.
It blows people’s minds!”
“The scholarship was massively
helpful - my partner and I had no idea
where we were going to be financially,
so having that money... it made our lives
completely different.”
It is an acute sense of determination that drives Pete
Conroy to give it everything he’s got and make the
most of every moment in his artistic pursuits.
Scholarship
helps fan
Pete’s Flame
Clockwise from main:
Pete Conroy; Chasing the
Shade; Matty
To view Pete’s
artwork, go to
facebook:
peteconroyartwork
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