John Mulvany
Green House, 2019, oil on canvas, 48 x 60”
Describe your artistic style in three words.
Elegiac, atmospheric, naturalistic
What's inspiring you right now?
Humans’ attempted recalibration of our relationship to the natural world. The Pandemic and our helplessness in the face of the US Federal government’s inept response is inspiring in a frightening way. I have been painting a lot of landscapes, mainly with trees and thinking about how we have a tendency to see the natural world as something outside of ourselves as opposed to actually being a part of nature, albeit an often destructive part.
What do you do when you're feeling uninspired?
I am not the kind of artist who waits for flashes of inspiration. If I was I would be waiting forever. Maybe that’s a consequence of getting older. Work begets work in my studio. Being an art educator and a parent means that personal art-making time is always at a premium. That said, if I’m between projects I focus on practical tasks, like cleaning up the studio, stretching canvases, editing reference photos and looking at lots and lots of other art. I move the oils over here and the acrylics and watercolors over there. Then I move them all back again.
Tell us something unique about your process.
In recent years I have felt much more committed to making paintings about places that I have actually experienced first hand, environments that I can be immersed in rather than an outside-looking-in approach. So all my reference material is my own- I don’t know if that’s unique or just a personal quirk but it feels like I have a more direct connection to my subjects that way.
What advice do you have for other artists?
Oh man, here we go. As an art educator I am routinely giving out advice whether it’s wanted or not! There are some principles and good practices I have (sometimes painfully) learned. For younger artists starting out I think it’s important to find a group of creative people who you relate to and who can challenge and support you and who you can also challenge and support.
Practice your craft. Find the medium/material/practice that works for you, materials that you like to use so much that it doesn’t feel like work. Good ideas combined with mediocre craft undermines every part of the artwork.
Engage with people who are curious about your work for whatever reason. Be open, patient and enthusiastic about your work when you are talking about it. And yes, you should talk about it and/or write about it too. I am a classic curmudgeon from the bogs of Ireland. I have had to work hard at this skill but have found a lot of insight into my own work through conversations with people who are generous enough to give you their time and attention. Art should be about connection and insight into what makes us human. Mammals, bipeds, opposable thumbs, a mystery, a magic skeleton who has no idea what is happening.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I used to be an amateur taxidermist. I'll go back to that eventually if all this doesn't work out.
Bloom, 2019, oil on canvas, 48 x 60”
Special Edition, 2019, oil on panel, 16 x 20”
Grackle, 2019, oil on canvas, 30 x 24”
Dumpster, 2019, oil, acrylic, collage text on panel, 12 x 9”
The Pattern Days I, 2020, oil on canvas, 16 x 20”
The Pattern Days II, 2020, oil/acrylic on panel, 10 x 10”
The Pattern Days III, 2020, oil on canvas, 24 x 24”
The Pattern Days IV, 2020, oil on canvas, 20 x 16”
The Pattern Days V, 2020, oil on canvas, 16 x 20”
John Mulvany is an artist and educator originally from Ireland who has been living and working in Austin for twenty two years. His two most recent exhibitions were Secure the Perimeter at grayDUCK Gallery in 2019 and The Pattern Days, an online exhibition in 2020.