Peter Goss is celebrated as the first studio glass artist to set up in Queensland. He established a studio at Tewantin (just up the river from the beach resort of Noosa Heads) in 1981 and has been the 'grandfather' of the extensive glass artist community in the Sunshine Coast region. His influences include helping set up Chris Pantano outside Nambour as the second glass artist in Queensland in 1986 and performing the opening ceremony for the Sunshine Coast Hot Glass Studio in Yandina for Jonathon Westacott and Greg Royer in 2004 (both operations since closed).
Peter Goss served in the Royal Marines 1964-1973, including active service in Borneo. He trained at the Jam Factory glass workshop in Adelaide 1975-1977 (see the first picture below with, from left, Rob Knottenbelt, Peter Goss, Stan Melis, John Walsh and Tom Persson). He then worked both as an independent artist at the Jam Factory and in Sam Herman's Studio (see the second picture below for an item inscribed "Peter Goss 77, SA2, SJ Herman Glass Studio") before moving to Queensland in 1979 and setting up his Paraison Glass Studio two years later. To quote Glenn R. Cooke writing in Craft Arts magazine in 1989, "His early works ... reflect the influence of Sam Herman but his more recent concentration on forms inspired by sea life has parallels with that of his other teacher, Stan Melis." For an example of the latter, see the third picture below.
Greg's item is a relative of the one in the fourth picture, inscribed "Peter Goss 89 digital No 6".
He became ill and closed the business in 1991 and then worked in the food industry in the region, variously as human resources manager, safety officer and product quality manager. First he was at the famous Buderim Ginger Factory, which by then was located not in Buderim but 23km away in Yandina, coincidentally in the same street that the Sunshine Coast hot glass studio later operated (although Yandina, pop. 4000, is sufficiently small there are not too many other streets to choose from!). In a further coincidence, the old ginger factory building in Buderim was later converted by the state government into a craft centre, opening in 1991 and featuring a hot glass studio which housed Chuck and Lesley Simpson, Lucas Salton, Martini Glass (Mark Galton and Tina Cooper) and others. A business directory shows Peter Goss working for a subsidiary company of Buderim Ginger as late as September 2009.
As Ross said, the works of Peter Goss are prized when they come onto the market.
Trevor