Mary Mulholland was born in England 1949. She graduated with a Diploma of Fine Arts from the Dunedin School of Art in 1973. After having a family Mulholland started painting in 2003 and since then she has had a number of significant exhibitions in public galleries such as the Forrester Gallery, Oamaru and the Otago Museum. Her work is held in the public collection of Hocken Library, University of Otago, and many private collections nationally and internationally.

Mulholland has made the subject her own, producing paintings that possess a restrained elegance alluding to the profound.