Karl Mullen

Karl Mullen

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Karl Mullen now resides in Massachusetts where he works daily in his studio, the horse stall of a nineteenth-century barn. He has developed his own distinctive approach to art-making, utilizing walnut oil, raw powder pigment and a wax medium that coalesce into color-saturated, luminous images.

His ground of choice is artist-stock Arches paper, but plenty of other substrates show up in his portfolio: old book pages, sheet music, photographs and other ephemera that glow with the passage of time. Painting largely with his hands, Karl creates primitive, poetic figures that float on fields of color.  At times, he applies his materials with bottles, knives and other kitchen utensils, which lends a draftsmanly quality to his work.

From a biography by poet Cassandra Cleghorn, “Karl Mullen’s palette is the larder:  red wine, walnut oil and ink, Barry’s tea, pastes in silver tins, powders like exotic spices.  To watch Mullen paint is to watch a weird amalgam of line chef, body-worker, bartender and day laborer, each having sworn off the traditional tools of the trade.”

Also an accomplished musician, Karl spent his early days playing folk music in Dublin kitchens and played with underground punk band Carsickness and Ploughman’s Lunch, all while developing his distinctive visual language.

These days he spends his evenings in art and song and stories.

Selected Works

Click images to enlarge

Windswept

Arches Archival Paper infused with walnut oil, powdered pigments & other applied media.
size: 20 3/8 X 30"
$650.- (KM517)

Wayfinding

Acrylic Paint, Ink, & Pencil on Found Ephemera
size: 13 1/4 X 15 1/8" - Framed Size
$550.- (KM516)

King and Blue Sky

Walnut oil soaked rag paper with powdered pigments & other media
size: 16" x 20"
$325.- (KM434)

XIXTH

Ink on Found Ephemera
size: 6 3/4 X 8 1/2" - Framed Size
$300.- (KM510)

Fire King

Arches Archival Paper infused with walnut oil, powdered pigments & other applied media.
size: 30 3/8 X 44 1/8"
$900.- (KM450)

Grave Maker

Ink & Other Applied Pigments on Found Ephemera
size: 7 3/4 X 10 1/4" - Framed Size
$350.- (KM512)

The Crowd

Arches Archival Paper infused with walnut oil, powdered pigments & other applied media.
size: 38 1/2" x 50"
$950.- (KM353)

Under a Pale Blood Moon

Arches Archival Paper infused with walnut oil, powdered pigments & other applied media.
size: 11 7/8 X 16 1/2"
$275.- (KM427)