Jay Murphy
Jay Murphy was born in Dublin and studied fine art in Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Central London School, London.
She is a Founder member of the Fior Uisce in Dublin and later the Western Artists group. She is also a member of the Island Connection group of painters and sculptors which arranged exhibitions on various European islands, from Inisbofin, Inismore to Malta & Tenerife etc. She is currently a member of AKIN, a group of five artists, an offshoot of Western Artists. AKIN received a Galway City Council award in 2002.
Jay has exhibited widely in solo and group shows since 1975.
She has illustrated a number of books, notably Gonella and Litany for the Pig by Eva Bourke.
Her work has appeared in numerous group shows, and one-person exhibitions in the Stone Gallery, at An Dámhlann in Spiddal, the Lincoln Gallery, Dublin, the Carroll Gallery, Longford, the Kenny Gallery, Galway and the Galway Arts Festival.
She has work in many private and public collections.
Her solo exhibition HYDRO at the Norman Villa Gallery as part of the Galway Arts Festival was selected by the Irish Times art critic Aidan Dunne as one of the visual arts highlights in 2011.
Her recent exhibitions include Hamilton Gallery, Sligo, Claremorris Gallery, Mayo and Taylor Galleries, Dublin.
In 2023 Murphy held a solo exhibition at The Kenny Gallery titled 'Lorna's Garden'. The collection of oils and pastels were insprired by the garden landscape created by Lorna MacMahon in Galway.
Artist’s Statement
One of the many benefits of living in Galway was that once a year Lorna Mac Mahon opened her garden to the public to raise money for The Galway Mental Health Association, of which she was a founder member. She lives about half a mile up a side road off the Galway to Moycullen road, and even the main road was lined with cars on this special day at the end of May.
Lorna has retired from this now, but a few months before covid locked us all up, I asked her if she would mind if I made some pastels in her garden, and she was most gracious and welcoming. I loved working there, sitting myself amongst the ferns and the moss, looking up the winding steps through native trees, discovering secretive corners, rock sculptures, streams and pools and also formal spaces, all created with an extraordinarily high level of horticultural expertise and without the use of harmful chemicals.
Unfortunately I had to stop visiting during the covid scare, but I used that time to make oil paintings in
my own studio, from the work I had done in the garden. I also did some paintings of my own garden. As the work mounted up I realised I had the makings of an exhibition. When I broached the idea with Tom Kenny, he was both encouraging and enthusiastic. “We’ll call it Lorna’s Garden” he said. And that is what we have done.
