春 Haru | Spring by Tatha Gallery

9th April – 14th May 2022

Tatha Gallery is excited to present 春Haru | Spring, a stunningly unique series of intricate works by Paul Furneaux, winner of the Tatha Gallery Award at the Royal Scottish Academy Open exhibition in 2019.

Rain Garden: Blues Mokuhanga on three panels with resin coating 60 x 105 x 2.5cm

Garden: Blues Mokuhanga on two panels with resin coating 99 x 126 cm x 3cm

Rain Window Mokuhanga on two panels 60 x 90 x 3cm

Spring: Kyoto Mokuhanga on panel with resin coating & small addition in pencil 73.5 x 47 x 4cm

The Anticipation of Spring

The title for this exhibition is Haru, which in Japanese means spring. In many ways the title could have been The Anticipation of Spring, for the works are not the full-blown image of spring, everything bursting forth in a great upsurge of energy and colour. Rather, they are the restrained anticipation of this happening. The potential. The buds dormant hints of future pleasures. Pre-pandemic I spent this season in Tokyo and Kyoto. In Tokyo, I was on a residency with three other artists. From this intense period of work came the large three panelled work Tokyo: Spring – the pivotal piece in the exhibition (also an intense memory). It uses the geometric language I often use. Large soft areas of colour hold the eye with small flashes of vibrancy, hinting at this evolving blossoming season. I use an underlying structure of stripes to add depth and change the pace between different parts of the work. In this work is also a use of a varnish resist which has been a part of my language adding a painterly element to the limited forms and mark-making I use. A few works suggest rain, perhaps reflected on a pavement or views from windows perhaps onto gardens such as Inside: Outside. These works all use Mokuhanga, the Japanese woodblock printing which

has sustained my output for more than 20 years since I completed my masters in this medium at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Whilst other works refer to rain not only in its life giving properties but as a threatening element recalling themes which have underpinned much of my work in the past. The small work Black Rain suggests the threat of global warming and the revenge of nature. Several of the works in this exhibition use the Mokuhanga in a new way for me. I had been looking at Diebenkorn, an American artist I enjoy and there are several playful and exquisite collages, some on cigar boxes. This coincided with an invitation to exhibit collages in an exhibition entitled Assemblages at the Royal Scottish Academy. So having started making some pieces for that exhibition I decided to keep some back and expand on these for this new exhibition with Tatha Gallery. Not to dwell on it too much, but I started to suffer a bit from repetitive strain from hand cutting and printing so much. Working with collage – cutting paper and using archival glues to build up the image – has been liberating and alongside the restrain in

colour in many of these works I think one can see the bubbling energy and fun in the way these have been put together. I keep a resource of leftover prints, printed colour notes and incomplete works which I have collected over years. Alongside these I have a stock of old papers and books (many over 100 years old) which have an inherent beauty in their own right. At times, then, I can turn to my blocks and colours and change and adapt the colour on a strip of paper, even cutting some new blocks to finish a small corner I am working on. All of these also have additions in pencil, charcoal and watercolour. Using this source I have made several collage (Mokuhanga) works for this show. One can see, that when grouped together, there is an urban theme – with hints of gardens or perhaps a blossoming tree. In one work the garden is dominant Garden: Blues again suggesting the potential for spring and echoing the melancholic mood I often feel towards the end of winter. This large work has a more organic use of cutting into the blocks, flowing with energy and like several of my works it is mounted on a panel(s) and has a resin coating which adds a further depth. — Paul Furneaux, March 2022

Tokyo Colour Collage on panel with addition of pencil & resin coating 30 x 30 x 3cm

Reflected: Rain Mokuhanga on panel with resin coating 45 x 30 x 3.5cm

House Mokuhanga collage on panel with addition of pencil 30 x 30 x 3cm

Blue House Mokuhanga collage on panel with addition of pencil 30 x 30 x 3cm

Small House Mokuhanga on panel with addition of pencil & watercolour 30 x 30 x 3cm

Blue Rain Mokuhanga collage on panel with additions in pencil, charcoal & watercolour 30 x 30 x 3cm

Untitled | Spring Mokuhanga collage on panel with addition of pencil 30 x 22.5 x 2.5cm

Havana Dreams Mokuhanga collage on cigar box with addition of pencil & charcoal 15 x 27 x 4.5cm

Rooftops Tokyo Mokuhanga collage on panel with addition of pencil & watercolour 15.5 x 15 .5 x 2cm

Meeting Place Mokuhanga collage on panel with addition of pencil with resin coating 21 x 13 x 2cm

Distant Sea Mokuhanga collage on wooden panel with addition of pencil & crayon 20.5 x 15 .5 x 2cm

Digital Flats: Moon Rise Mokuhanga collage on wooden panel with small addition in pencil & resin coating on front surface 10 x 15 x 4cm

Storm Mixed media on cape board & wood, backed with wood & coated in resin (including Mokuhanga, pen, pencil & watercolour) 18.5 x 15.5 x 1.5cm

Mountain Dreams Collage on wooden panel with resin coating 11 x 13cm

Mado Mixed media drawing 13 x 26.5cm

Drifting Clouds (Diptych) Mokuhanga, cast gesmonite, wood, wood panel, rice paste, resin coating, wax 20 x 26cm

After Wine Night Mokuhanga print from edition of 10 30 x 60cm

Black Rain Unique Mokuhanga print 21 x 21cm

Inside Outside: Sunlight Garden Mokuhanga from varied edition of ten 60 x 120cm

Spring: Tokyo Mokuhanga on sealed wooden panels (with perspex box frame) 90 x 137cm

Paul Furneaux RSA (b. 1962, Ellon, Scotland) Selected Solo Exhibitions 2022 2021 2018 2018 2017 2016 2015 2015 2014 2014 2013 2012 2011 2009 2005 2003 2002 2001 1999 1995 1991

春 Haru | Spring, Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay, Fife 目の戸 | MADO, Academicians Gallery, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Between Moments, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Cabinet Exhibition, John Martin Gallery, London Yellow and Blue, Pittenweem Art Festival (invited artist), Fife Borrowed Light, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Outside: Inside, William Road Gallery, John McAslan + Partners, London Mokuhanga, Meffan Galleries and Museum, Forfar, Angus Japanese Woodcut Prints, Printmaking Studio, Academy of Fine Arts, DKO, Gent Inside: Outside, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Pause, House for an Art Lover, Glasgow New Works (with Niamh Flanagan), Dublin Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin Paul Furneaux: Mokuhanga, Edinburgh Printmakers Gallery, Edinburgh Notes on a Landscape, i2, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Blue Flowers: Red Shadows, Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh New Works, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Connecticut, USA Graphics, The Honran Gallery, Falun, Sweden Stone Cut: Woodcut, Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh Strange Rain: Woodcut Prints, Gallery Saoh & Tomos, Tokyo, Japan Colours of a Strange Autumn, Anglo-Mexican Institute, Mexico City, Mexico Works on Paper, Todd Gallery, London

Selected Recent Group Exhibitions 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021 2021 2019 2019 2019 2019 2019 2018 2018 2018 2018 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2016

Unique Impressions: International Monoprint & Monotype Invitational, Davidson Galleries, Seattle, USA Assembled: Collages by Royal Scottish Academicians, Academicians Gallery, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Adaptation: Artists Respond to Change, Browngrotta Gallery, Connecticut, USA Sumi Fusion: International Mokuhanga Exhibition, Nara Prefectural Cultural Hall, Japan Kanreki: 60th Anniversary Exhibition, Dublin Graphic Studios, Dublin Solace, Edinburgh Printmakers Gallery, Edinburgh Breaking Boundaries: 9 International Mokuhanga Artists, Walla Walla Foundry Gallery, USA Art + Identity: An International View, Browngrotta Arts, Connecticut, USA Mokuhanga: Cross Culture Europe + Japan, CfSHE Gallery, Tokyo Imprint: New Prints and Multiples by Royal Scottish Academicians, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 369 Remembered – The Men, Summerhall Gallery, Edinburgh Conversations with Paolozzi, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Depth of Field (four person exhibition), Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London From Paper to Gold: 50 years of Printmaking Excellence, Edinburgh Printmakers Gallery, Edinburgh Cut: a Celebration of the Woodcut Technique, Glasgow Print Studio Gallery, Glasgow Ages of Wonder: Scotland’s Art from 1540 to Now, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Contemporary Perspectives on Printmaking, Mall Galleries, London Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Summa: an Exhibition of Recent RSA Residency for Scotland Artists, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Pulling the Print, Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay

Selected Awards 2019 2016 2015 2015 2014 2014 2013 2012 2012 2010 2010 2011 2011 2006

The Tatha Gallery Award Royal Scottish Academy Residence Programme with support from The Barns-Graham Charitable Trust and An Lanntair National Open Art Exhibition, London, Orrin Trust Award Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition: Deloitte Prize Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition: Roy Wood Print Prize National Open Art Exhibition, London: The Turtleton Trust Award Visual Arts Scotland Annual Exhibit: Richard Coley Award for Sculpture Mokuhanga Innovative Laboratory: International Artist-in-Residence Programme, Lake Kawaguchi, Japan The Royal Glasgow Institute Annual Exhibition: House for an Art Lover Award Royal Scottish Academy: Gilles Bequest Award to attend the First International Conference of Mokuhanga Visual Art Scotland Annual Exhibition: PF Charitable Award Hope Scott Trust Award: grant towards the exhibition and publication of ‘Paul Furneaux: Mokuhanga’ Great Britian Sasakawa Foundation: grant towards the exhibition and publication ‘Paul Furneaux: Mokuhanga’ Elected Royal Scottish Academician

tathagallery.com 1 High Street, Newport-on-Tay lindsay@tathagallery.com @tathagallery @paul_furneaux paulfurneaux.com

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