Nancy Murray began her life in the UK, leaving at 21 for an adventure in South Africa where she spent 25 years, married, and had her daughter. The next adventure began in 1996 when she and her family moved to New Zealand, where Whangaparaoa Peninsula is now home. In South Africa, Nancy gave art classes for children, and adult classes in porcelain painting and watercolours. She was a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington, where she exhibited often at the Academy, the highlight being selected to be in an exhibition called “Artists as Activists” with 20 other artists, including Sir Grahame Sydney. She also held two gallery exhibitions one with her sister, also an artist, called Sister Act II and one solo exhibition. Examples of her work are hanging in the UK, Vienna, USA and New Zealand.
In New Zealand, she has mainly taught watercolours and acrylics before recently opening her own Studio – Studio 32, concentrating on her own canvasses in acrylics and oils, both realist and contemporary, opening up a whole new exciting dynamic world of freedom of expression and interpretation. In recent years she has joined other artists on painting trips to the South Island to paint “plein air” (outdoors), which can be exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Speed is essential, in one day in Glenorchy, she had sunshine, rain, snow and wind.
In Auckland she has exhibited at Whangaparaoa Library and many times at the Snells Beach Art Show. The latest very successful exhibition being Five Peninsula Artists held in September at Coast Plaza, which was a wonderful way of meeting the community and many other local artists who came to chat.

Nancy Murray works in Acrylics, oils and mixed media, now concentrating on abstract and contemporary works, pulling her emotions when painting from the world around her and the colours of each season of the year, preferring to work on large canvasses when space allows.
Freedom of expression has allowed her to explore new ways of painting without any ties to previous artistic traditions. Texture, depth, movement and particularly colour have become vital tools in achieving success.