Queensland artist Joe Furlonger’s practice is informed by his early years in semi-rural Samford, on the north-west outskirts of Brisbane, which profoundly influenced his career as an artist by instilling in him a love of the outdoors. At 17 years of age, he went to work as a deckhand on commercial fishing boats, periodically returning…
Continue reading » “Joe Furlonger: Where sea meets land & sky”
At art school in the 1970s, a young Joe Furlonger was ‘happy just to be painting’ — an activity enjoyed since childhood and a counterpoint to his work on the family’s market garden farm and stints on fishing trawlers. Now on the cusp of turning 70, the Queensland artist’s urge to paint is undiminished. A…
Continue reading » “Wide horizons: The art of Joe Furlonger”
Queensland artist Joe Furlonger came to national prominence in the late 1980s with a series of large-scale figurative paintings inspired by the beach and the sea. His method was highly physical, applying swathes of colour with vigorous sweeps of the brush. For his large figurative ‘fishermen’ and ‘bather’ paintings, Furlonger immersed himself in the styles…
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