This is a fine piece of contemporary Scottish Art by one of Scotland's leading printmakers.
It is a lovely early original signed limited edition screenprint print by the Scottish artist and master printmaker, Paul Furneaux, RSA. It is a very rare impression - perhaps now the only surviving impression of this work; an early screenprint made just after he graduated from college.
He was born in 1962 at Ellon, Aberdeenshire, and studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art from 1982 to 1987.
Furneaux has been awarded several awards including Young Scottish Artist of the Year 1987 – 88, a Japanese Monbusho Award to study in Japan from 1996 – 2000, and a Residency at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
He has held solo exhibitions within the UK in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as abroad in the USA, Sweden and Japan. His work can be found in the collections of the Aberdeen Art Gallery, Royal Scottish Academy, National Museum of Scotland, and the Scottish Executive. He has travelled widely and exhibited internationally.
Sadly, Furneaux's career suffered a major setback when his studio, equipment and over a decade's worth of work was destroyed in Edinburgh's Old Town Fire in December 2002; and his earlier works are now so much harder to source. In more recent years, the artist has been exploring traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques and his work has become more abstract in nature.
This is an early work that shows his love of colour and abstracted forms, and for him is a more unusual landscape composition. It is titled in pencil, below: Demon on Calton Hill. The print shows a traditional view from Calton Hill looking over towards the Castle - but it is certainly depicted in a most unusual way. A strange big almost smiling sun, silhouetting a winged creature is seen behind the silhouette of the Scott Monument. In the mid-distance is the North Bridge, and the Hume Monument by Robert Adam; to the right is the Old City Observatory. To the left is the obelisk known as the political Martyrs Monument, built in 1844 to commemorate the five political martyrs of 1793, who were charged with sedition and transported to Australia for demanding legal and parliamentary reform.
In the foreground - is a strange winged creature floating above this historic scene - the otherworldliness of the scene is emphasised by Furneaux's use of fantastic and unnatural colours. Calton Hill is the scene for the city's annual Beltane Festival, so perhaps this strange print by the artist relates to this event.
It is certainly a harder-to-find work - and indeed comes from a very small edition size of only 15 issued.
The print is printed on heavy-duty, good quality Arches paper.
The image is 34 x 56 cm. It is sold unframed.
UK Posting will be with Parcelforce24 and this will be capped at £10 - this will be applied to your order at the checkout.