Tropical Glass Art sparkles in Australia!

Glass art in Australia and especially Tropical Glass Art is a relatively recent art form, the result of the introduction of the subject into a number of tertiary courses in the country over the last thirty years or so and influenced by a small number of glass artists from Europe.



In January 2003 my daughters and I travelled to Perth in Western Australia to attend the bi-annual Ausglass conference held there. That conference discusses glass trends in conjunction with members’ exhibitions.

We wanted to find out more about Australian glass in order to promote it in our gallery, Port Douglas Gallery of Fine Art, if we thought that it was special enough.

Well, it was fantastic! We were blown away!

The skill and variety of the work really impressed us and subsequently we were able to stock the work of such leading Australian glass artists as Nick Mount, Ola and Marie Hoglund, Marc Grunseit, Meg Caslake, Tim Shaw and Roger Buddle.

Their work was added to beautiful Tropical Glass Art pieces by Queensland artists such as Judith Bohm-Parr, Sean O’Donaghue and Terry Eager.

There’s something about glass art that seems to suit the tropics. Perhaps it is the vibrancy and clarity of the colours… pure colour held in suspension…the emphasis then becoming form…and movement… light captured…

Whether it is blown, cast, fused, slumped, made into weathered or sparkling beads or used more pictorially in leadlighting, glass has a translucency, fragility and almost spiritual quality which has wide appeal.



Of recent times, Ola and Marie Hoglund have established a studio and home in the rainforest north of Port Douglas. They spend part of the year there and the rest of their time in New Zealand. Renowned for their collectible rainforest graal forms, they produce one off pieces reflecting aspects of the tropics.


Judith Bohm-Parr has branched out to include glass jewellery in her repertoire…beautiful hand-made glass beads meld with jewels of dichroic glass…irresistible.

Enthralled by Judy's recent exhibition at Cairns Regional Gallery, a friend was delighted to later purchase a piece that the artist herself had been wearing!

...and then there's cloisonne painting, in which the artist, Beat Urfer, makes incredible paintings using a combination of powdered glass and acrylics.

The best of our Tropical North Queensland artists produce "one off" original Tropical Glass Art pieces, from wearable art to contemplative poems of light and form, all of extremely high quality.

See Hoglund Tropical Glass Art studio page
To Judith Bohm-Parr glass jewellery
See Beat Urfer's cloisonne paintings
Definition of fine art
Art in Tropical Australia home page