Joe Furlonger: Horizons

42 layer structure. However, Furlonger’s experimental approach and sustained interest in surface and texture is reflected in later works such as Study for Bribie Island Passage I 2010 [p.84], where the detergency and variable wetting of the medium are used to produce pleasing visual effects. More recent paintings contain multitudinous dilute layers of PVA paint built up to create ethereal Australian landscapes. A far cry from the ‘bathers’ paintings of the late 1980s, where elements of ground and drawing are visible, the interplay of extensive layering in his current work creates an opacity and distinct materiality that demonstrates his ever-evolving practice. FINISHING Furlonger is not the only artist to have difficulty in deciding when to call a painting complete. His paintings might only be stretched and signed when required for exhibition or sale — to meet a deadline. Sometimes, the intended boundaries of a composition change when he finds the allocated tacking margins have ‘become interesting’, filled with multicoloured drips and runs of paint. Furlonger has been known to glue canvas strips to the perimeter to function as new tacking margins, thereby allowing the interesting edges to remain part of the composition. More recently, he has experimented with adhering his completed paintings to plywood to better support the thick and heavy paint film resulting from his stratified technique, trimming any overhanging edges. In each situation, the same multipurpose PVA fulfils the functions of both paint binder and adhesive. Furlonger expresses his confidence in the judgment of professional curators and conservators, professing to have things he would rather do than obsess about how his works are presented once finished. This extends to decisions such as whether and how to frame them (although he does reveal a fondness for painted 1930s-style bevelled profiles 8 ). He is, however, adamant that his paintings should never be varnished. There is an additional symmetry between Furlonger and Fairweather in this handing over of the art: Mary Turner, at Macquarie Galleries, recalled adhering Fairweather’s paintings to sheets of Masonite and framing them without further input from the artist. 9 Following a lifetime of travel, reading and exposure to eclectic influences, and gaining an appreciation for their shared geography and interests, Furlonger has come to feel a connection with ‘this guy . . . up the road’. Joe Furlonger is an artist compelled to explore both materials and concepts, but ultimately identifies primarily as a painter. As he says: ‘I’m more interested in just making the marks and doing the painting. It’s about the journey, not the [destination] . . . I’m one of those’.