CONCORD, MASS.- Lacoste Gallery presents works by New England painter Buzz Masters and ceramic artist David Peters. Both draw inspiration from the natural world, and their work is intimately connected to it. Masters is a Maine-based artist who creates complex mixed media works from the layering of gessos, clay compound, paper, oil stick, casein emulsion, beeswax, graphite, nails, acrylic paint, driftwood, shells, and 23k gold leaf on wooden panel. Her artistic process is material-oriented, akin to the working and glazing of clay.

Masters has shown throughout New England, where she is well-known, and nationally. Her daily walks along the beach and outer islands of coastal Maine deeply influence her aesthetic. She is most interested, not in landscape, as one might expect, but in what she finds washed up along the shore. The piles of tangled rope, driftwood, broken buoys, and rubbish tell stories, their connections to heritage and history complex ones. Masters translates the complexity within those tangled and discarded objects into layers in her paintings, creating rich narratives intuitively.

Like Masters, David Peters has a back-to-the-land artistic method that flows from his “instinct to return to the most basic aspect of ceramics, the forming and heating of clay.” He prospects the clay with which he sculpts throughout Montana, sourcing it himself with the aid of geological survey maps. The process follows the cycle of the seasons, taking a full year from “ground to table.” Each clay has unique working and firing characteristics, products of compounded formations. Both Peters and Masters are attuned to the processes, geological and historical, that shape their environment. They work with those processes as the raw materials and inspiration for their artwork.

Masters and Peters employ a variety of techniques. “I do not set out to draw one specific thing. Instead, I begin by layering materials and adding mediums to build a surface,” notes Masters, who links imagery as she works. Peters’ large pieces are coiled and paddled in the tradition of ancient Korean and Thai ceramics, while smaller vessels are thrown on the wheel or pressed into plaster molds. His crucibles, jars, serving bowls, mortars and pestles, and vases are wood-fired using the beetle kill pine and Cottonwood native to Montana.

David Peters is the recipient of the NCECA 2014 Emerging Artist Award, and has shown nationally and internationally. Both he and Buzz Masters will be in attendance at the opening reception on July 12 from 3:00-5:00 PM, where they will discuss their work and its relationship to nature.

“Buzz Masters is the painter most connected with Lacoste Gallery. She fits well because she has clay in her background. In addition, her built-up surfaces complement the ceramics we show,” notes director Lucy Lacoste. “David Peters is much more than an emerging artist, having shown in Chicago, Miami, Australia, and China. We are pleased to introduce him to our audience.”