Martin Murphy

A little about the Artist.

Martin Murphy was born of Irish parents in Sheffield, England in 1949.

He attended a one year foundation course at Sheffield College of Art in 1968, before moving on to Kingston on Thames College of Art where he graduated in Painting with an U11 with Honours and Distinctions.

After his formal art education he pursued his life as a painter supported financially by a multitude of “hands-on” occupations, such as furniture restoration and cabinet-making (much helped by hours spent, whilst at Kingston, with a technician who was a Polish cabinet maker). His skills in restoration later progressed to property, his last occupation in England before moving to Ireland in 1994.

During this period of his life it never occurred to him that people may actually wish to purchase his works and subsequently the produce off his easel was given to friends, or overpainted. Very little of his work from this period survives today.

Since moving to Ireland his life has changed greatly. Almost by accident his work was seen by visitors to his studio, and paintings started to sell. He now has, a few years later, work in private collections all over Ireland, Europe and the USA.

This is, he claims, “the best part of my life, being paid to do what I always wanted to do-paint” and goes on to say that perhaps it was necessary to have so many years outside the artworld, building up skill and experiences useful to his art.