.

Entering the Liquid Glass Gallery through a small door takes you into a wonder-world of colourful glass shapes and elongated triffids bowing their heads in welcome. Magical shapes and swirls of colour tickle your imagination.

Another doorway and you are instantly immersed in the production of these amazing shapes as you leave the gallery and enter the studio. The ceiling soars 40 feet above, which you soon realise helps disperse the rising heat from the 1200 C blast furnace where glass is transformed into art in the sure hands of Lucas Salton.

Lucas has lived on the Sunshine Coast of Australia for 17 years and has no intention of leaving, no matter how popular his work gets. His life-long love affair with glass was developed, if not born, locally as well.

"I was fascinated by glass and all things shiny as a kid. I first started making small glass animals by sticking broken windscreen glass together that my sister, Larissa, and I would collect from the side of the road." Lucas said.

"I then went to a dinner party where I was introduced to a glassblower who told me of a job on the Sunshine Coast. I was 17 and a bit. The first time I saw it I knew I had found my path. Glass is alchemic. You mix dirt together, burn it with fire, which makes it clear and molten, you control it with water, wood, air and steel and never completely master it," Lucas said.

His depth of feeling as an artist is evident in the shapes he creates which are smooth and sensual. He also drew inspiration from the time he spent in Japan both teaching and manufacturing for Kurokabe Inc.

Commissions & Exhibitions
Warner Brothers commissioned some of Lucas's pieces for the films "Ghost Ship and "Peter Pan", one of which can be seen in his Private Collection. The embassy residence of the High Commission of Brunei Darussalam in ACT acquired Lucas Salton's glass sculptures and he has exhibited in Munich as well as Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart and Brisbane. Locally, Lucas has also had several solo exhibitions at the Noosa Sheraton Resort with great success.

He has also completed several installations in private homes, hospitals and hotels including his 320-piece installation at the Westin Hotel in Sydney.

Lucas's ability to create spectacular, one-off awards and gifts has been recognised and appreciated by companies like Apple Macintosh and BHP as well as the Queensland Premier's Department, Museums Australia, Queensland's Smart Women Awards and the South Australia Business Woman of the Year award.

He also transforms selected pieces into custom lighting with spectacular results.