This Spring Velarde presents Selected Works by acclaimed Scottish printmaker Paul Furneaux RSA.

Paul was born in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, in 1962 and studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art (1982-1987).

Winning the Monbusho Scholarship in 1996, Furneaux was able to begin comprehensive research into the art of woodblock printing and undertook a Masters degree in the subject at Tama Art University, Tokyo (1998-2000).

During his time in Tokyo, Furneaux developed his interest in the Mokuhanga printmaking technique which has underwritten his practice ever since.

Furneaux has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the RSA Salvesen Scholarship; the RSA Gillies Bequest Award and the Hope Scott Trust Award.

In 2006 he was elected a Member of the Royal Scottish Academy.

A Master Printmaker and highly-regarded authority on printmaking in Scotland, Furneaux regularly leads workshops and demonstrations in the Mokuhanga technique. He lives and works in Edinburgh.

Furneaux creates abstract works using the traditional Japanese woodblock printing technique of mokuhanga.

Working with water-based pigments, hand-carved blocks and a disciplined layering method, he embraces both precision and subtle unpredictability within the medium.

His interest in landscape and his concern for the environment are ongoing yet understated themes.

A central dynamic in his practice lies in balancing the limitless possibilities of his materials with an intuitive approach to abstraction.

He combines the controlled cutting typical of many Japanese printmakers with a more expressive visual language, often associated with Western woodcut traditions.

The result is work that is at once restrained and gestural, meditative yet immediate.

Paul said: “The foundation of my work has repeatedly been about looking and experiencing the landscape, seascape or garden with its varying vistas and ever changing light conditions.

“The final manifestation of this work becomes an abstraction and distillation of this contemplation of the landscape subtly blending the physical reality with the implied.”

The Exhibition runs until June 27 at the gallery at 86 Fore Street in Kingsbridge.