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Info Request Peter Goss Australian Studio Glass Artist

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brewster:
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

ahremck:
Great research, Trevor.  It really is time that the history of Australian Art Glass had a good book put together so those who come after us can appreciate the wonderful ceqations made by Aussies remote from the mainstream glass communities in Europe & USA.  Thanks for the info.  Where did you get the photos - are they all part of your collection?

Ross

Greg.:
Thank you very much Trevor for all of your background info and the additional pictures you posted, most enlightening, its sad to hear that Peter no longer works as a glass artist, Ross did intimate that he may have stopped working in the industry due to bad health.

The pictures clearly show the different influences that affected Peters work at different points through his career.

I have attached a picture below of my Peter Goss piece, next to an early example of Sam Herman's work blown at the RCA in 1969. Whilst the colour and patterns are very different the overall shape and form draw many resemblances. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks
Greg

brewster:
Although it is an interesting piece, Ross's suggestion in Reply #2 of a joint work by Peter Goss and Alex Mitrovic is mistaken. It is more likely an early work by the noted West Australian glass artist Alan Fox. See his website here.

What is the evidence? For a start, the object itself is unlike anything ever done by either Peter Goss or Alex Mitrovic. Then, if we look in another post where Ross made the same suggestion here, we can compare signatures. The proposed Goss-Mitrovic signature is quite different from the Peter Goss or Alex Mitrovic examples in the first two pictures below. Rather it is much more like Alan Fox in the third picture. Look at the shape of the "A". Look at the word "Fox" with the crossbar of the "F" extended over the rest of the word. Look at the terminal "x" which is no "ss".

Why the initials "AM"? That's for Alan Mark Fox. See his bio for his full name here.

The date 1982 is plausible for Alan Fox because that is right in the middle of the period he operated his Glass Nest studio in Bridgetown, WA.

Trevor

ahremck:
You may be right Trevor but the signature on that funny jug is so bad I would never suspect the second part was Fox and not Goss.  For years I wondered who AM Goss was.  The photo of the signature is not great but is attached.  See what you think.

Ross

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