John Cullinan is an artist in the prime of artistic life. While for many years an inspirational and dedicated educator, he has always preserved and nurtured his own artistic output, growing his distinctive style and he has built, in tandem with his work as a tutor, a reputation as a significant contemporary artist. Now retired from a full-time post, he, in these recent years has been able to focus his energy and entirely on his work as a practicing painter.
Cullinan paints like a man anxious to make up for lost time; figures, still lives and landscapes. But each work is considered and thoughtful. His brushwork is ruthlessly and severely spare and controlled. No stroke is wasted or frivolous. Perhaps a literary equivalent might be haiku, and indeed, were it not for his preference for the material plasticity of oil paint, its glinting ridges and rich colour, there is something quite oriental in the extraordinary discipline he exercises in simplifying forms and delivering them on canvas in characteristic round-headed, broad, sensuous brushstrokes.
He also makes drawings in charcoal from the nude, like his paintings, similarly reduced and distilled. However, his formal discipline permits greater freedom in the use of colour and it is as a colourist that he is best known. Crimson, Viridian Green, Ultramarine Blue are the crashing, intense colours he typically uses to draw highlight and to dramatise his paintings.
An honours graduate from Limerick School of Art, Cullinan taught there after graduation, moving two years later to study the landscape of the west of Ireland. Later, moving to Co. Waterford where he now lives on the edge of the Copper Coast.
His admonition to painters is “to paint honestly and remain true to yourself, you hope your audience will keep pace with the development in your painting.”
John Cullinan Bio (click to view)
