Australian paintings, sketches and ceramics from the 1960s

News from the Sunshine Coast Art Collection Curator

In recent months I have been collaborating with an art collector on curating an exhibition of works from his incredible art collection which will be on display across each of the Sunshine Coast Library branches. Each library will have something a little different ranging from ceramics, paintings and watercolours by contemporary Australian artists and ceramicists.

One of the key artists in the region-wide display is renowned Australian painter: Joe Furlonger. Born in Cairns, and grew up in Samford, Brisbane, (where he now lives and works), Joe Furlonger is regarded as one of Australia's most respected landscape painters, known for his use of hand-made acrylic paints and reused canvases.

He came to prominence in the late 1980s with a series of large-scale figurative paintings where his method was highly physical with swathes of colour applied with vigorous sweeps of the brush. Usually a mix of figurative and abstraction, his influences include European masters, Matisse and Picasso, and the likes of Australian artist, Ian Fairweather.

"I like to convey that idea of movement that might be in the stillness of landscapes" (Joe Furlonger, 2014)

He has exhibited all over Australia and has been an Archibald Prize finalist nine times, won the Moet & Chandon Fellowship in 1988, and the Fleurieu Art Prize for Landscape in 2002. His work is represented in all major State and National Galleries, as well as in private collections.

"Restlessly creative, Furlonger draws every day - he draws incessantly, with pencil, charcoal, brush, pen or crayon. He has filled countless sketchbooks and completed a large body of works on paper. These drawings are both preparatory studies for paintings and self-sufficient works of art. The quick, spontaneous transfer of his observations onto paper is at the heart of all Furlonger's artistic activities, from painting and printmaking to ceramics and sculpture." (John McDonald, 2002, New Contemporaries)

Selections of artworks from this significant collection will be on display across all Sunshine Coast Libraries from October 2020 through to February 2021.