Meet Artist Timothy Mulligan, Spring Obsession OPEN DIVISION accepted artist

            Timothy Mulligan

 A Contemporary Northern California painter

O-131  View from Tower Bridge  acrylic 24x20  $1800

I attended Sacramento City College and received a degree in Fine Art from CSU, Sacramento. I studied under notable artists as Greg Kondos, Gerald Walburg, Peter VandenBerge, Laureen Landau, Larry Welden, Jack Ogden, and Steve Kaltenbach.

After I graduated, I worked as a printmaker creating etchings and prints, and produced several watercolors, pastels, and large pencil drawings.  I exhibited my earlier works at the Crocker Art Museum, the Haggin Museum, the California State Fair, and several local art galleries. 

In 2011, after taking a long break to teach my two children at home, grades K-12, I returned to art to pursue my passion to paint on canvas. I painted multiple landscapes, cityscapes, and waterscapes which include the local farmlands, coastal beaches, and quiet neighborhoods.

My paintings have been exhibited throughout the Central Valley and in the Bay Area, and in 2013 I received over a dozen awards in national and regional art competitions, including First Place in the 2013 KVIE PBS Art Auction. My work has also been recently recognized in two national art magazines, The Artist’s Magazine and Southwest Art Magazine.

View Under Tower Bridge  acrylic  24x20  $1600

I paint with acrylics on site and in my studio using a variety of paint knives and brushes.  My earlier works are mostly representational; often combining impressionistic and expressionistic painting styles.  My later works are exclusively expressionistic inspired by the painting style of the Bay Area Figurative Movement; synthesizing forms with dynamic raw colors and using aggressive paint strokes. 

What inspires me to paint is seeing a subject from a fresh and unique perspective. I try to minimize the details and focus on the light, shadows, colors, and shapes.  I make a new color palette for each painting and try not to follow conventional methods. Oftentimes, I allow the texture of the painted surface to help create form and movement. To separate and energize the shapes I use colorful seams, marbleized flattened planes, and lines scratched into the paint.   I’m beginning to explore combining multiple perspectives of a subject into a single cohesive image.

My recent paintings can be sorted into three groups: The Raw, The Real, and The Inventive: 

The Raw paintings are made up of basic forms, which are quick and organic.  They strive for an honesty built from intense color and light, in an open and exposed way.

The Real paintings seek to take the raw style to a strange, heightened level of reality.

The Inventive paintings embrace abstract form and restrict the raw style.  These paintings flatten shapes, heighten color, and avoid a sense of realness.

www.timothymulliganfineart.com/