Murphy Ayala

Artist Bio

Based in Raleigh, NC, artist Murphy Trogdon Ayala is known for her evocative rural slice-of-life oil paintings. With expertise born from her experience as a former partner with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting in Charlotte, Murphy’s understanding of space, shadow, and light provides the foundation for her work. As a nod to her previous career in architecture, structural arrangements in the rural and urban landscape are often her choice of subject matter.

Preferring to paint from life, Murphy often begins her process on site to fully engage her senses and unfurl her artistic instincts.  These works take the form of small gestural paintings capturing the fabric and nature of the place, observing context with an interest in cultural underpinnings.  Once back in the studio she creates larger scale works exploring the assemblage of elements such as patterns of light, shade and shadow, dominant colors or features that make a building or structure otherwise notable or identifiable.

Murphy continues to hone her skills by regularly participating in a weekly figure study and workshops with nationally recognized artists including  Jim Richards, Colin Page, and Felicia Forte.