Inevitably
many of the ideas for Mulleian’s unique images would come to the artist
so rapidly at any given time that most of the images would have to be captured
in pencil, pen and ink, leaving the remaining selective images to be executed
in oil. Traditionally it would take any were from five months to a year to paint
a single piece, while many others of enormous complexity as much as two years
to complete; paintings such as Dies Irae, Lost Journey and Bridle Path.
The
sublimely elegant drawing entitled Atlantean Pharaoh was originally meant to
be executed in oil during the late 1990’s, but was moved aside as other
visions of greater complexity manifested, fully formed, necessitating that they
be painted. As Mulleian once iterated in a publication, “There are not
enough years in a single lifetime to fully accomplish the task of executing
each single image into oil as they come into being in my mind. Therefore I must
choose”.
This
pen and ink drawing (above) entitled Cross Road by Mulleian, is a piece intended
as a drawing only. There are about five hundred of Mulleian’s drawings
of all kinds in existence, including studies of which only ten percent were
ever developed into paintings, while over ninety percent of his paintings were
conceived only as oil.
Although
the drawing Atlantean Pharaoh is one of those pieces intended ultimately as
a painting, the artist has expressed regret in not yet having developed it into
that medium. As a painting it is believed that it would truly stand out in full
majesty, and like so many of Mulleian’s paintings, would indeed capture
the imagination of viewers for generations to come.
