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BIO

Ellen Murray is an artist who lives and works in Arizona, in the desert southwest United States. Her paintings, large-scale watercolors, and mixed media pieces have been exhibited in over 100 national and international exhibitions. Her work first gained major national recognition in Watercolor USA: the Monumental Image at the Springfield Art Museum, MO. This landmark national exhibition was one of the first to recognize American artists creating innovative large-scale watercolors. Murray has won numerous awards and grants including a grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance for a national traveling exhibition of her watercolors. In late 2006 her creative research with water imagery expanded into a major mixed-media art installation at the famous Santa Croce Museum/Church in Florence, Italy where Michelangelo, Galileo, and other major Florentines are buried. Murray was the first American contemporary artist ever to exhibit there. Her invited solo installation was featured as part of international events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1966 Florence Flood that damaged important Renaissance art throughout Florence. Murray’s artworks are included in numerous private and corporate collections throughout the United States including IBM and McDonalds.

Ellen Murray was born in Raleigh, North Carolina where she spent her childhood. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with both BFA and MFA degrees, she started her teaching career in the Department of Art at Oklahoma State University. She currently holds an appointment as Professor of Painting and Drawing in the School of Art, Herberger College of the Arts, at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. At Arizona State she supervises the largest Watermedia and Art on Paper program in the country while concurrently pursuing her career as a working artist. Murray’s art is featured in two recent books, Best of Watercolor: Composition, and Best of Watercolor: Texture.