Toby Mulligan

Artist Overview Artworks Events & Exhibitions Artist Video Gallery Biography

Artist Overview Artworks Events & Exhibitions Artist Video Gallery Biography

Award-winning British artist Toby Mulligan is celebrated for his distinctive contemporary figures and intuitive, unscripted approach to creation. Being ambidextrous enables him to draw and paint with both hands, engaging the rational and intuitive sides of the brain simultaneously to produce works that are dynamic, emotionally resonant, and alive with energy.

Mulligan begins each piece without preparatory sketches, allowing the work to evolve organically into something spirited and extraordinary. Preferring to paint from life rather than photographs, he seeks a deep emotional connection with his sitters, and this philosophy infuses his portraits with a rare authenticity and immediacy. His practice extends beyond traditional methods: he grinds his own pigments and experiments with varnishes, wax, medieval paint recipes, and even wallpaper, reflecting a deep engagement with every stage of the creative process.

Shaped by an itinerant childhood spent in France, India, Morocco, Mexico, Afghanistan and the UK, Mulligan grew up immersed in diverse landscapes and cultures. This early exposure to difference sharpened his sensitivity to people and place, feeding into an artistic vision that is both cosmopolitan and deeply personal. While his style is instinctive, he draws inspiration from the great masters, from the stillness of Vermeer to the freedom of Matisse, as well as from architecture, music, science and nature.

Recognition has come from both critics and collectors. His portrait About Time, a tender painting of his daughter, was a finalist for the BP Portrait Award in 2012 and is now held in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. He has been commissioned by Roger Federer, filmed painting for Sky Arts, and his work is held in private collections worldwide, including Mick Jagger’s French chateau. His socially engaged practice includes collaborations with charities such as Steel Warriors, where his acclaimed Icons of Our Time portrait series raised funds to combat knife crime.

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Toby Mulligan Biography

Toby Mulligan’s distinctive contemporary figures have won him both critical and public acclaim. He works in a variety of media including charcoal on paper and inks.

He is deeply engaged with the whole creative process so often grinds his own pigments and has been known to experiment with varnishes, wax, medieval paint recipes and rolls of wallpaper.

His spontaneous style has developed over many years. When he begins a piece, he does not prepare with sketches or planning, but simply starts to paint or draw, and each work is intuitive, spirited and extraordinary. He uses a wide range of models, but feels that his best work comes from making a connection with the person he paints. Although he does use photographs, his preference is always to paint from life and to form this connection with the model.

A painting of one of his daughters is an outstanding example of how this emotion can transform a work into something out of the ordinary. Entitled ‘About Time’, it was selected for the BP Portrait Award 2012; after hanging in the National Portrait Gallery in London throughout the summer, it is currently in the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

Toby was commissioned to paint tennis star Roger Federer in 2014 for the player’s annual charity gala in Geneva, and his work is in private collections around the world, including that in Mick Jagger’s chateau in France. He has made a number of films painting portraits for Winsor and Newton, Liquitex and Cass Art and this year, he has been filmed painting for Sky Arts TV for a forthcoming autumn show.

His mantra both as an artist and as a person is to simply to be present, paying total attention to the world within and without. He believes we can go out and learn whatever we need, thanks to the information revolution, so there's no need to go around with a head full of facts and figures. The challenge as he sees it is to be free, clear and “as unfettered by stuff and thinking as the day we were born. Always open, always amazed”.