Inspired by the language of painting, and the poetics of nature, Daisy McMullan’s paintings are observational and emotional documents of the world around us.
Each painting is an individual meditation on an interaction with the natural world – a rewilding of the mind, the self, the soul. The Romantic ideals of returning to nature, individual spirituality, and treading ancient paths to commune with the metaphysical are highly influential on the process of making these works. They also reference Dutch still life painting, where life, death and spirit are carefully balanced and observed.
These paintings are crafted from layers of colour, and energetically painted marks. Often, they depict mundane places; edges of footpaths, riverbanks, an uprooted tree. The themes of edges, incidental spaces, and pathways are richly entangled. Different routes and themes become narrative mappings through time and geography, created using experience and observation, as well as imagination and memory.
Daisy trained as a fine artist at Wimbledon School of Art and Camberwell College of Arts, receiving a BA(hons) in Painting in 2007. She later studied for a Masters in Curating at Chelsea College of Art and Design, and was awarded a two-year Research Fellowship in 2012 at Chelsea Space, a public gallery at the College.
Daisy’s notable solo exhibitions include: Observed Imagined Remembered, Cass Art Kingston (2022), and Rewildings, Dorking Museum (2022). She has exhibited in group shows including HERO, Great West Gallery (2024), Abstract Worlds, Croydon Art Space (2023), Winter Group Show, Folkestone Art Gallery (2023), and the Young Masters Invitational Exhibition, The Exhibitionist Hotel (2023/24). Daisy made her debut at the British Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in 2023. She was also shortlisted for the SAA Artist of the Year People’s Choice Award in 2022.
Daisy works from her studio in Brixton, south London, creating paintings and exhibitions that reflect on nature and place. The works become emotional documents, depicting unseen feeling as much as they record the world that we can see.