Michael Vincent Murphy

Michael Vincent Murphy (b. 1943, Poole, Dorset, England) emigrated to South Africa in 1950 and worked in commercial art from 1961 until 1983. After a year of formal study at the Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design in 1984, he began painting full time. He relocated to Perth, Australia in 1999 and now lives and works in Mandurah, south of Perth.

Murphy works in the realist tradition, creating still lifes, landscapes, and surreal compositions that often merge genres. His paintings are largely imagined, constructed from invented objects and settings that suggest both familiarity and strangeness. Central to his practice is an exploration of light, composition, and atmosphere, imbuing even his most surreal works with a sense of stillness. By blending real and imagined elements, Murphy extends the conventions of still life, landscape, and figurative painting into new, contemplative spaces.