ART IS EVERYTHING

“It’s beauty in darkness; beauty in light; it’s a reflection of yourself and everything around you. Beauty is something that comes from within. Strong inner beauty forces its way out, surfacing into light, reflecting. It is the beauty in the strength of confidence that a model exudes when in front of the camera. The dance begins between the photographer, the camera and the model.”

Nuala Mulligan

For her first collection in the UK, she uses block colour and a finishing of diamond dust to portray some iconic female figures in a new light.

Nuala has been fascinated by the power of storytelling from a very young age, with its necessity to visualise the creation from the imagination. She is drawn to female protagonists with strong and conquering personalities, powerful qualities which surface into form, into beauty, into heroines surging with strength. Her interest in film is a natural extension of her love of storytelling and imagery and she remembers being captivated by the classic films featuring the women who have since inspired her work - among them Marilyn Monroe, Twiggy and Audrey Hepburn. DIAMOND DUST ON BOX CANVAS

Nuala’s hypnotic portraits of Marilyn have a textured and luminous finish which is created by applying diamond dust to the silkscreen print that she has made. This technique increases the significance and depth to the work, as the diamond dust harnesses and disperses the light in such a way that the colours are enhanced and the piece seems to glow. Marilyn has a charisma and beauty which can be hard to capture on canvas, but the addition of the diamond dust reflects her radiance and surrounds her with an aura of light and warmth. DIAMONDS ARE A GIRLS BEST FRIEND I Silkscreen Diamond Dust on Canvas Edition Size: 95 30” x 40” £1,750

From Andy Warhol’s silk-screened muse of the 1960s to Nicky Minaj’s alter ego in the 2012 song Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn has been a staple of cultural awareness for over 50 years. Luminescent actress and sex symbol, she combined beauty, charisma, knowingness, vulnerability and innocence in a way that proved irresistible and made her the most famous celebrity of all time. As well as glamour, she represented an ideal of womanhood that was disappearing, but although the era may have passed, she has transcended her time and remains with us. Yet despite the films, the interviews, the thousands of photographs and scores of books and articles, there is still something fundamentally unknowable about Marilyn, and the desire to somehow capture her elusive essence has been inspiring artists ever since.

Nuala’s three images are heart-stoppingly lovely. The shades she has chosen to use remove the conventional colours and instead highlight the shadows and contrasts of the face, while the glowing diamond dust captures the sheer spotlit radiance of the original blonde bombshell. DIAMONDS ARE A GIRLS BEST FRIEND II Silkscreen Diamond Dust on Canvas Edition Size: 95 30” x 40” £1,750 DIAMONDS ARE A GIRLS BEST FRIEND III Silkscreen Diamond Dust on Canvas Edition Size: 95 30” x 40” £1,750 DRAWING UPON HER LOVE OF THE CAMERA AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IT AND THE MODEL, NUALA MULLIGAN CREATES BOLD SCREEN EDITIONS OF STRONG, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN. SILKSCREEN ON PAPER

Nuala has created all the portraits in this collection using the traditional fine art method of silk screen printing. This artisan process produces exceptional quality images that remain true to the spirit of the original, presenting colours with great accuracy and giving a uniquely lustrous finish to each piece. The screen is a frame made from wood or metal with fabric stretched tightly across it – originally silk. In Beauty Queen and Cover Girl, Nuala applies a stencil to the screen and metallic inks over this before placing the screen on the paper and pressing the ink through the open areas of the stencil by hand. She then removes the paper and allows it to dry before the process is repeated. These editions have an additional layer of glamour which comes from the metallic background and accents of colour. “AUDREY HEPBURN IS A CULTURAL TOUCHSTONE, WHO CONTINUES TO INSPIRE TODAY.” Vogue

Audrey Hepburn was described by Vogue as a “cultural touchstone, who helps to put the word icon back into perspective. Graceful, elegant, and unafraid to explore avant-garde silhouettes while retaining her signature elfin beauty, she left an inimitable legacy that continues to inspire today.”

While Nuala’s stunning tribute to one of the faces of the age is essentially a monochromatic portrait, she has introduced a dazzling shade of blue into the fabric, creating a dramatic foil for those famously perfect features.

BEAUTY QUEEN Silkscreen on Metallic Background Edition Size: 195 20” x 26” £675 THE FACE OF 1966.

Twiggy is a home grown star. Her enduring fame has made her a genuine British icon who came to represent the essence of the swinging sixties in her role as the world’s first supermodel. Officially declared ‘the face of 1966’ she has continued to captivate the generations, coming to represent a time and place which was redolent of colour, life, energy and glamour. Reinventing herself regularly as fashions change, she has still retained her own strong sense of style and individuality.

Twiggy’s face lends itself perfectly to Nuala’s style, as the huge eyes and wonderful bone structure translate beautifully into the exaggerated darks and lights that dominate her work. This powerful image is a classic take on a face which has become that rare thing - iconic in its own time.

COVER GIRL Silkscreen on Metallic Background Edition Size: 195 20” x 26” £675