Paul Furneaux

For the last decade and more, I’ve been exploring traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques. This inherently beautiful and simple process has allowed my work to develop in a contemplative and semi-abstract way. I began watercolor woodblock printing, Mokuhanga, on a scholarship to Tama Art University in Tokyo. I was motivated by a group of Japanese printmakers who I met at Peacock Visual Arts in Aberdeen, Scotland where I was making large woodblocks in the early 1990s. I didn’t make it to Tama until 1996. Events took me first to Mexico where I painted angels, demons and masks in rich colors. It was an exhilarating if freaky time, ending in 46 of my paintings disappearing with an American art dealer. I then spent four years in Japan, studying Japanese and traditional woodblock techniques, finding a new way of expressing myself. A residency in Norway followed. There I was surrounded by huge fjords, full of magic, with colours that were intensified by rich sunlight. The culmination was a conceptual shift -- I moved from traditional flat, printed works to creating prints as “skins” to clothe three-dimensional works. I hesitate to say that there are underlying themes to my work. However, my concern for the ever-changing landscape and global warming is often there, if not always obvious. Rain started to appear in my work as an environmental response and continues to inhabit my thoughts. Some of the forms speak to the architecture of buildings I saw in Japan, but also imbue the soft sensual beauty of the trees, the park, the blossom, the soft evening light touching the sides of the harsh glass and concrete blocks.