Lora Murphy

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Lora Murphy

I have always been fascinated by faces and from childhood, that is what I really wanted to paint and draw. All of my school books had doodles of eyes and lips, faces and figures. I remember clearly the discovery of perspective. I was about 7 years old and I had made a drawing of a group of people. Suddenly I realized that if I made a line behind the figures I could place them in a room. From that moment on I was totally hooked. I loved the old master Portraits and would look at them for hours, copying them in my sketchbooks and later trying to paint them. It was a real voyage of discovery and the joy and wonder of it has never left me. I still feel such a sense of amazement when I look at faces and try to analyse how the light hits and the cheeks curve or how the halftones can render the sense of volume. I love how the placement of colour can indicate shadows or reflected light and I get such a sense of joy from a portrait that I am satisfied with. The discovery of Encaustic was a game changer for me. I trained as an oil painter and was introduced to encaustic about 15 years ago. I remember painting my first piece but tears running down my face….I felt I had come home and that profound emotion has never left me.