Joe Furlonger: Horizons

38 Stretched canvases were a necessity in the early years, before he had a studio with sufficient space to work flat on the floor at scale. Other early, large- format paintings are composites; one such work is Fishermen 1985, created in the vacated warehouse studio he shared with fellow artists Robert J Morris and Ian Smith at Petrie Bight. 2 Furlonger recalled how sheets of watercolour paper, which he sized with animal glue, were arranged on the floor for painting. The painted sheets were subsequently pasted onto large plywood boards obtained from the dismantled internal walls of the warehouse; holes and cut-outs in the ply are testament to its prior function. Once mounted, painting resumed. Changing working orientation mid-painting is not unusual for Furlonger. An unstretched canvas begun while laid on the floor might be finished after being pinned to a wall. The vertical placement not only allows him to stand back and appraise his work, but also provides an enticing alternative surface against which to continue painting. Reminiscent of Max Ernst’s frottage, Furlonger uses the textural elements of, for example, particle board flooring, or corrugated iron walls, to transfer visual effects to the paint layer. This is still evident in his practice, with unstretched works in progress lining the walls and on the floor of his studio. COMPOSITION DEVELOPMENT Furlonger’s indomitable urge to paint or sketch his environs was evocatively captured by Evan Hughes and Simon Wright, his companions on a field trip in 2011. Precariously parked on the side of a steep winding road, a thermos of black coffee memorably provided the necessary fluid for Furlonger to dilute his ink and render the view. 3 Equally compelling is an account of his sketching while at the wheel of his vehicle, speeding along country roads. 4 His creative output is punctuated by bouts of drawing, influenced by a long list of committed artist–teachers: ‘There’s really old sketchbooks lying around everywhere, and . . . now I’m doing a lot of stuff on small bits of paper’. He describes how these sketches — drawn or painted in a range of mediums — allow his ideas to develop, conceptually. When it comes time to paint, he doesn’t physically refer to these studies, but cumulatively, they form the basis for his compositions.