> home > Trade Gallery > artist biography

Bio

Sean Patrick Murphy has led a life of adventure and fun and is as opposite of the stereotypical artist as one could imagine. Having sailed the seven seas and traveled the seven continents; surviving, after a helicopter in which he was a crew member, suddenly fell out of the sky over Texas; and serving in the Navy as a Rescue Swimmer; he does not fit the notion most people hold of a conventional artist.

Born in Olympia Washington, Sean, moved to California at the age of five where he had and continues to have a love affair with the water. From the age of six, he was surfing and living at the beach as much as possible. Hitchhiking to the ocean was an everyday occurrence for him, and he enjoyed a free lifestyle throughout his youth. "My childhood was wonderful," he says. His love of water remains, and he tries to put it in every painting he does, even if it means just putting in a birdbath.

Showing an affinity for art early in life, Sean loved to doodle and draw. When he was twelve, his room was going to be wallpapered so he was allowed to draw on the walls. He covered them and had a wonderful time doing it. Sean's parents are also both very creative. His mother works in academia at the university level and his father was an executive for Revlon, but his mother also creates wedding gowns and his father was so interested in graphic arts that he eventually left the corporate world to start his own graphic arts business.

Sean excelled in art class in high school, but he didn't know how to turn his gift into a viable career. Pulled by his love for the arts, but dissuaded from following that path by what he thought was sage advice encouraging him instead to go into business, he did what thousands of young men do after graduation and enlisted in the Navy.

The Navy proved to be an excellent training ground for Sean in many areas. As soon as anyone would find out that he was artistic, he would have the job. Not letting a lack of experience dictate what he could do, Sean was eager to tackle new challenges. He did inlaid tile, designed cruise books, and worked on the Navy Newspaper. He attended college wherever he was stationed. Eventually the day came that with his background in Combat Search and Rescue, it was time to put his training to use. Sean rescued survivors from two jets that went down in separate incidents and received Navy commendation for multiple rescues.

His four years in the military finished, Sean headed back home. Since money was an issue, he immediately began a career and went into retail management. Still not convinced that he could actually make a living with art, he continued doing it as a sideline, and it always sold well.

Sean's heart remained with painting, but he continued to successfully work and rise in the retail world for several years until almost magically fate stepped into his life. One evening, at a jazz club, he saw a woman that he wanted to meet, unaware that he had just seen his future wife. Both say it was love at first sight. Desiring to ask her out, but unable to think of a way to become acquainted, he discovered she was an artist and needed to hire someone to help with the physical and technical work in her studio. Sean seized the opportunity to work there and quickly made himself indispensable. His coup was the day he picked up a paintbrush and turned a blank canvas into a quality painting. Up to that point, she had not known he was an artist.

Sean Murphy and Vicki Wilber have since married and are the parents of a little girl. Happily employed by Rosenbaum, Sean feels he has been given a wonderful opportunity to work as an artist and plans to have a very long relationship there. He is a voracious painter and is continually experimenting with new techniques. Vicki and Sean collaborate very closely in their artwork. As individuals, they are both outstanding artists, but together they define synergy. Her talent in drawing and color compliment his technical abilities and innate sense of proportion and detail, thus allowing them to be uniquely creative and skillful when working together.

An incredibly talented and versatile artist, he is self-taught and is not afraid to try any style. He is known for using very bold colors. Monet, with his French Impressionistic paintings, is his favorite artist. Sean describes his art as Florida Bright Impressionism with the beach being his favorite scene to paint. He prefers acrylics on canvas because they are so forgiving.

Sean judges his work by whether or not he would hang it on his wall, even though he knows he would never be happy with it and touch it up daily. He enjoys painting things that are beautiful and different. The pointillism technique, he sometimes employs, which consists of using a quarter-inch brush to paint dots that ultimately create a painting is something done by only the most dedicated of artists. He laughs when he tells of others saying how tedious it is.

Typical of Sean's personality, he dives into projects and works at warp speed not quitting until the job is done. Thriving on challenge, he enjoys learning new techniques and then seeks ways to change them to make them his own. "The universe directed me this way, and it worked out fine for everyone," says Sean of his art and his life. With the storybook quality that permeates both his personal and professional life, he could be accused only of making an understatement.

SEANMURPHY