Video of review for 'Big City Living' paintings. Video is approximately 2 minutes.
JACQULYNN MULYK ARTIST STATEMENT
2009
With my fold-up easel slung across my back and my fold-up stool in my hand I would walk the streets of Calgary looking for interesting places to stop and paint. I worked mainly in pastels, a medium that is easily transportable. I managed to build an admirable collection of work and from these studies earned commissioned paintings from building owners, home owners and corporations. I did renderings of many different sites including, downtown towers, Garrison Woods and resort properties in Banff and Mexico. All was created in Pastel.
I left Calgary and moved to Vancouver. I started the process of outside drawing again, only this time I was working in oil pastel and focused on entire street scenes rather than particular buildings. I dragged my easel and pastels all over Vancouver learning the intricacies of its colours, smells and landscape. While there, I took courses at Emily Carr School of Art and Design. I created sound recordings of the city. I continued to sell work, one of my paintings made it to the cover page of the West End Newspaper and I joined up with the Main Street Artist Society.
Again, I found myself back in Calgary. I opened up a business – Burst and Bloom Gallery, located in Art Central. I was now painting full-time and teaching regularly through my gallery, at Epcor Centre for the Arts and through Public School contracts.
My latest body of work is called, “Big City Living”. The paintings are best described by Yvonne Jeffery and her article in the Calgary Herald:
“Her paintings -- collages of paint, photos and even fabric -- provide glimpses of the cities: vibrant splashes of colour and movement in New York, flowing expanses of blues and greens in Vancouver, and in Calgary, a sense of space, set against a framework of skyscrapers and rivers.”
I create my work on custom-made birch board of very high quality. I still like to do the initial sketch outside. I miss the opportunity of direct interaction with my subject if I have to work from photos alone.
1. Once the sketch is complete I take the board back to my studio and draw over the entire sketch in ink with an old fashion calligraphy pen and ink well.
2. I then begin the first couple layers of acrylic ink painting. The inks are transparent and in that way work much like watercolours, only I believe the ink is a more vibrant and stable medium.
3. Then I go through the photos I took on site to pick out the best collage images to bring the viewer into the painting and to create a greater sense of place.
4. Once the collage is complete, I do more painting and drawing until I feel the painting is complete.
5. The last step is the application of the resin.
So far I have created ‘Big City Living’ paintings for New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Calgary. I am looking forward to many more new creations.