Paula Bullwinkel is an Oregon-based narrative and figurative painter whose richly layered canvases inhabit the luminous, unsettling borderland between surrealism and folklore. Her work has been exhibited extensively across the United States and internationally, earning her a reputation as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary surrealist painting.
Born and raised in Northern California, Bullwinkel spent her childhood steeped in creativity — crafting miniature animals and figures in her mother's ceramics studio, reading classic fairytales, and inventing imaginary worlds in the woods near her home. Her mother, landscape artist and ceramicist Ann Bullwinkel, instilled in her a lifelong sensitivity to color and an unshakeable belief in the power of art. Bullwinkel went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from UC Berkeley, where she studied painting under the celebrated artist Joan Brown, before later completing a Master of Arts in Art Education with a minor in painting at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where she studied with acclaimed painter Julie Heffernan.
Before turning to painting full-time, Bullwinkel spent nearly two decades as a professional fashion and portrait photographer in New York City and London. She shot for Vogue, British Elle, GQ, Interview, and The London Sunday Times Magazine, and counted Andy Warhol among her clients. Her lens captured luminaries including Kate Moss, Kevin Bacon, and Joan Didion. Photography's narrative instinct never left her; today, she frequently draws from her own photographs as source material for the cryptic, symbol-rich scenes that define her paintings.
Bullwinkel's canvases are populated by female protagonists and animal familiars. Influenced by the surrealist masters Dorothea Tanning and Leonora Carrington, as well as Paula Rego and Neo Rauch, her work is simultaneously playful and foreboding, tender and fierce. Her heroines move through spaces charged with beauty and danger; her beast-companions serve as guardians, muses, and spiritual anchors.
Her exhibitions span the United States and abroad, with shows in Portland, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Switzerland, among other venues. She has received numerous prestigious artist residencies, including the Hangar Art Research Center in Lisbon, Portugal; the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in California; the Brush Creek Artist Residency in Wyoming; and the Kala Institute of the Arts in Berkeley. Her accolades include an Oregon Arts Commission Grant and a Ford Family Foundation Fellowship. She was profiled in a nationally broadcast segment on the PBS series Oregon Art Beat.
