OAKWOOD DESIGNS
Brad Moss

"Turn with an absence of fear. I’m driven by a passion to enlighten and inspire people to embrace the possibilities of what can be achieved with wood.”

Sap literally flows through Brad’s veins. As a second-generation wood turner with almost 30 years in the industry Brad continues to push the boundaries of his craft. He has travelled extensively overseas attending conferences and furthering his studies within the world of wood art and furniture design. As a result, Brad has developed a very broad and diverse collection of skills, influences and techniques. In fact, Brad’s intimate knowledge of his craft recently garnered an invitation to teach and demonstrate his skills at the highly respected yearly symposium run by the American Association of Wood Turners.

A feature of Brad’s works is their ability to transcend any setting. Complementing both traditional and contemporary homes, a number of pieces have also been purchased by collectors from around the world for their private collections and corporate businesses. His five solo exhibitions have all been sold out and he has been a finalist in the Tasmania Design Award three years in a row.

Brad is passionate about taking wood turning to a higher plain of art and hopes that his teaching at a number of Tasmanian institutions such as the University of Tasmania, Tasmanian Polytechnic and Adult Education will give a new generation the skills to go far beyond the current conservative form. Brad believes that, like any journey in life, for an artist to succeed and find the truth in him or herself they must be prepared to step outside the known world and seek the impossible.

“My inspiration is drawn from a number of sources such as the Native American Potters, the Japanese Potters and the Chinese Potters for their simplicity and pure shapes. Ideas also come from the surface treatment found in the primitive tribal cultures from around the world. I find nature is the greater teacher when it comes to form, shape and texture.

I’ve never seen myself as simply a wood turner, rather a wood artist with the ability to create thought provoking pieces be it sculpture, turned furniture or a simple piece projecting pure form.”

The Product

Although Brad has created a diverse set of pieces for this exhibition, they all share a common bond: the expression of Brad’s ability to combine the three things he is most passionate about: form, texture and colour. His starting point always begins with form, after which he creates the textures and colour to enhance the particular piece of wood art he is working on.