Joe Furlonger: Horizons

20 breakthrough with the landscape was a change in medium; when he recognised that oil paint was not sympathetic to the subject, difficult to use en plein air and slow to dry. He explored the techniques of Australian artists Arthur Boyd and John Perceval and their use of tempera, made with colour pigment bound in water and egg yolk, with mixed results. Furlonger’s solution was to use pigments and a binder — namely, PVA glue — and to apply the mix on hardly primed canvas in ‘thin, soaky layers’. The application of oil paint gave the effect of a ‘layer cake in which you can’t see underneath or behind’. 13 Inspiration came from the powdered pigments historically used by Indigenous Australian artists to decorate shields and create rock art, where the wet pigment soaks into the rock; it has a similar effect when applied to the canvas. Practical and quick- drying, powdered pigments enabled Furlonger to use bigger canvases that could be rolled and unrolled, working on site, mixing as he painted, pouring water and glue to the desired consistency. 14 This new process freed him up, allowing his paintings to be less restrained, with precise colour selections applied in thin layers, and accented by the sensuous line work with which he is able to capture a series of rapid impressions. Furlonger’s passion for the landscape connects him to an enduring Australian art history: as a landscape painter, he is part of a celebrated lineage of Australian artists, including Fred Williams, Sidney Nolan and John Olsen. In 2002, his view of the brigalow landscape near Carnarvon Gorge in central Queensland earned him the $50,000 Fleurieu Art Prize. At the time, Furlonger stated: Vastness is what I like, what I want to paint. I am doing more and more landscapes, but it took me 10 or 12 years to get it right. Once you get into landscapes, it bites you and takes over a bit. 15 The following year, Furlonger and his family returned to the old family property at Samford, accessible via Furlonger Road, where he continues to live and work. Furlonger has a distinctly fresh, spontaneous approach to landscape, finding inspiration in Australia’s coastline and vast outback stretches. His style, characterised by the seeming contradiction of sketch-like impulsivity and painterly eloquence, has a deceptively naive quality. Study for Bribie Island Passage II (detail) 2010