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About James Murray

James Murray I was born in Tubbercurry in 1947 and went to the local national school. There was never a time as far as I can remember that I wasn't doodling with a pencil or dabbling with paint. I have had no professional training, just learning as I went along. When I was in my late teens I brought some of my work to Sean Keating R.H.A. He gave me great encouragement and told me no matter what happened to keep painting and so I have.


After I left school when I was fourteen I started painting and decorating and spent two years working with the Brennan brothers, Bernie and Eddie, first class tradesmen and decorators. Their father Pakie was the first person I saw graining in the traditional way. He was the best imitation grainer that I have ever known, he was also a master sign writer. Bernie was and is one of the best men I ever seen at lining, a real master and Eddie was also a real professional and "a hound with a brush" as his father used to say. I learned a lot from the Brennan's.


When around sixteen years of age, I started painting and repairing church statuary and have been doing this work ever since.