Paul Furneaux

For the last decade and more, Scottish artist, Paul Furneaux, has 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," he explains. Furneaux began watercolor woodblock printing, mokuhanga, on a scholarship to Tama Art University in Tokyo. He was motivated by a group of Japanese printmakers whom he had met at Peacock Visual Arts in Aberdeen, Scotland where he made large woodblocks in the early 1990s. Furneaux did not make it to Tama until 1996. Events took him first to Mexico where he painted angels, demons and masks in rich colors. “It was an exhilarating if freaky time," he says, “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 where I was surrounded by huge fjords, full of magic, with colors 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." Among the themes in Mr. Furneaux's work is a concern for the ever-changing landscape and global warming. “Rain started to appear in my work as an environmental response and continues to inhabit my thoughts," he says. Some of his forms speak to the architecture of buildings Furneaux 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.   

Selected exhibition venues:

Meffan Galleries and Museum, Forfar, Angus; Academy of Fine Arts, DKO, Gent; Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Connecticut, USA; The Honran Gallery, Falun, Sweden; Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh; Anglo-Mexican Institute, Mexico City; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; Royal Academy, London; Edinburgh Printmakers Gallery; Glasgow Print Studio Gallery; Xiaoxiang International Printmaking Center, China (invited artist); The Gulbenkian Gallery, Royal College of Art, London; Bankside Gallery, London; Nitra State Gallery, Slovakia; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Tokyo (invited artist); Numthong Gallery, Bangkok; Pusan Cultural Center, Korea; Tama Art Museum, Japan; Aomori Museum of Art, Japan; Korean Embassy, Tokyo, Japan; Central Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

Recipient: Lake Kawaguchi International Artist in residence, Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory (MI-LAB), Government of Japan; John Gray Award, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolor Annual Exhibition; Richard Coley Award for Sculptors, Visual Arts Scotland Annual Exhibition; Roy Wood Print Prize, Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition; Turtleton Trust Award, National Open Art Competition; Orrin Trust Award Scotland; National Open Art Exhibition, London, UK; Deloitte Prize, Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition.