Paquita Fadden

Paquita Fadden is a Gold Coast-based contemporary artist specialising in expressive portraiture, wildlife and landscapes using watercolours on glass-free, wax-sealed, custom-prepared textured canvas. Transitioning from a distinguished career in enterprise IT consulting and systems architecture, she brings a highly analytical approach to material chemistry and tactile surface construction.

Throughout my career, I constantly navigated a glass ceiling where the rules for success were distinctly different for women. I watched a systemic double standard play out time and again, where women often had to deliver far superior results just to be seen as equally dedicated. That enduring frustration is the driving force behind this collection.

When deciding how to visually capture this drive, the concept of “trailblazing women” was simply too broad. I needed a definitive framework, and I found it in modern Australian politics. Historically, this has been an aggressive, traditionally male-dominated arena that dictated the rules of all our lives — particularly the lives of women. Seeing two women finally reach the absolute highest offices in the country set my path. It naturally led me to investigate the other institutional “firsts,” and the cohesive shortlist for this collection quickly fell into place.

The women who stepped into that parliamentary arena had to fight harder, endure intense public scrutiny, and demonstrate a level of resilience that fundamentally broke the mould. This exhibition is a tribute to their endurance. My ultimate hope is that by securing their presence in our visual history, we remember that having women actively shaping our politics is the only way to forge the equitable laws that have been missing for so long.

Alongside my thematic drive, this exhibition is fuelled by a desire to showcase the untapped potential of watercolour on canvas. Historically, watercolour has been confined to paper and framed behind the barrier of glass. Very few in the art world — including experienced judges — are familiar with how the medium behaves on a sealed, custom-prepared surface. Because the pigments do not absorb into the canvas substrate the way they sink into paper, they retain an extraordinary, luminous vibrancy. I frequently hear art experts ask, “Is it acrylic?” When I explain the methodology, they are fascinated to experience watercolour as they have never seen it before.

The practice is defined by custom substrate methodologies designed to physically lift watercolour into a tactile, three-dimensional space:

By sealing the completed works with archival museum-grade wax, the canvases allow viewers to experience the raw physical depth, luminous light and tactile energy of watercolour in an unmediated space.