Last year's exhibition of paintings by Michael Mulcahy at the Lincoln Gallery was a patchy affair, consising of a handful of large pictures which had bold, direct magic, and others that were less penetrating. One felt that Mulcahy was not really in command of his talent, that he was a prolific painter who was occasionally seized by a spirit and moved by it. When the spirit chose to make an appearance the pictures hit their mark; when the artist himself tried to summon inspiration, the mastery was gone.