Alfred Furtado built a long career in Hawaii in the commercial art field but was perhaps best known for his vibrant paintings of hula dancers in motion.
Furtado, whose career included a decade as art director at The Honolulu Advertiser from 1986 to 1995, died Tuesday of brain cancer at the Arcadia retirement residence. He was 81.
Furtado was born Sept. 4, 1930, in Braintree, Mass. After serving in the military, he went to art school in 1953 on the GI Bill at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. During his education, he worked nights at the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper and eventually spent a few years in the paper’s Sunday Home section.
In 1960, Furtado moved to Hawaii, and except for a two-year return to California, he spent the next 25 years living in Hawaii, working for Gem department store and opening his own graphic design firm, The Art Department.
During his early years in Hawaii he met hula dancer Leilehua Becker, and in 1966 the two took a trip to Las Vegas to marry.
It was Leilehua’s ties to the hula community that inspired Furtado’s paintings. Luau hosted by the Beamer and Desha families where hula was danced regularly were events the artist kept in his memory. When he retired in 1995, Furtado painted his remembrances of those gatherings.
"Al’s work always exudes a cheerfulness, not only in color, but it captures a relaxed, happy joyfulness," said Michael Schnack, owner of Cedar Street Gallery, where Furtado’s art is sold. "His work has great movement and emotion to it."
Furtado’s paintings are also part of the lineup at Haleiwa Art Gallery and Martin & MacArthur.
Furtado’s son, Jeffrey Annon, said that when his father was in a nursing home in the spring, he never stopped wanting to make art.
"He kept saying, ‘Take me home. I need to paint.’ He definitely wanted to get back to it."
Furtado is survived by wife Leilehua, sister Carol Marino, son Jeffrey Annon, daughters Bambi Furtado and Wendy Spalding, and granddaughter Katrina Layne. Services will be held 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Borthwick Mortuary.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the American Cancer Society.
