By Brandon Hurley
Managing Editor
News@beeherald.com
The serenity blankets each guest as they trickle their way into the Raccoon River valley, piloting down a secluded gravel road parallel to the waterway, past a few ideal hunting locations before coming to rest at the desired destination. As guests turn onto Joe Murray’s property, they are led into a small, cove-like area, flanked by a spine-tickling peace and a tightly-packed forest. Once inside, Murray’s personal gallery on the outskirts of Jefferson exudes an ode to everything which remains right and good in the world.
For the long-time artist, his paintings have become a form of therapy, allowing him to appreciate what is always there, the natural beauty of a landscape, never meant to betray, only to inspire, providing a sense of relief, hope and understanding.
From barns and trees to magnificent mountain ranges and colorful birds, Murray’s artistry is a remarkable shrine to the Earth, created by his hands and mind.
He’s celebrating his 50th year as an artist, in one with the rhythm of his paintings, a process which speaks to his soul, listening to classical music as he paints, or even rock and roll, if the mood and subject strike him right.
He lets the brush guide him, a process which helped him rebuild his life.
“(The paintings) are my legacy,” he said. “I’m always trying to improve. The subtleties are all about the experience.”
Murray held his annual gallery open house Dec. 3-5 at his home, Wayuga Art Studio, 835 230th Street.
His career began with rather humble and mystifying introductions.
Murray was going through a dark time when he enrolled at the University of Northern Iowa in 1971. He had just returned from deployment in Vietnam, searching for an outlet of release, when he stumbled upon a life-altering discovery.
“It was no honor to be a veteran,” Murray said. “They spit on you in airports and all that kind of stuff. You didn’t feel like you did something very worthwhile. So I kept all that to myself.
Art became like therapy for me.”
Murray had no interest in his soon-to-be infatuation before he arrived in Cedar Falls, ironically his hometown. But a chance encounter in an elective art course inspired him. Murray told his professor he’d do all the work, but that he didn’t have any talent.
The professor wasn’t having it.
“He said that’s about the dumbest thing he’s heard in a long time,” Murray said. “He told me I’m not the one that judges talent, others are. He told me to go there with an open mind and see what happens.”’
Even though Murray fell in love with painting in college, 25 years passed before he was brave enough to share his pieces with the outside world. He created works for himself, using each day to hone his passion.
He spent those two decades developing his skills to a point where he was proud to share them with an audience. Murray never took another art course after his days on the UNI campus, molding his techniques on a trial-by-error basis. He became consumed by the process as his talent – and paintings – blossomed.
“It became an addiction to paint,” Murray said. “It’s the way I release my soul. It’s my legacy.”
There was no real meaning behind Murray’s choice to dip into watercolor. It’s what was available to him at the time.
“I was so dumb, I didn’t know one medium from the next,” Murray said. “It just so happened I had some watercolor, so I just kept doing it.”
As the years passed, Murray became fully invested in the process, appreciating the versatility of watercolors. He views each painting as a new experiment, a chance to try something new while depicting a landscape in a way only he can visualize. He became attached to the style rather quickly, and now couldn’t see himself painting any other way.
“The advantage of watercolor is you can capture the tonality and brilliance of a piece,” he said.
Murray says his artistic style fits more in the genre of representational impressionism, which is why he sticks with what he’s seen in his travels. Nature is the greatest storyteller, whether that comes from a mesmerizing sunset or through a simple oak tree, straining for love and attention.
“I want people to know what they are looking at,” he said. “I love the interaction of colors and the emotion they invoke.”
Which means Murray takes a natural landscape and adds color and lighting, hoping to draw out the most beautiful aspects of a scene. He enjoys the simplicity of nature and also its complexity. Nothing is ever the same.
“There’s a saying that nature is the art of God, and I think there’s a lot of truth in that,” Murray said, mentioning how he started with abstract and contemporary pieces, before eventually moving toward nature. “It came to a point when I was looking at a tree with all its branches and the way nature is and I thought, why do I need to be abstract?
I can get abstraction right in the representational. I get the best of both worlds.”
Murray estimates he’s created somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 to 400 paintings over the years. Each piece of work takes roughly 40 hours from start to finish. He’ll paint typically in the mornings though he does not abide by any type of set schedule, working on his piece for roughly 1-3 hours per day.
Murray starts with a vision before allowing the landscape to lead him. He begins with the background, essentially building the anticipation.
“The skies are the drama for me,” he said. “I’m going to try and make the sky as interesting as I can, then I build from the horizon and come forward.”
When he first began selling his paintings, Murray had a tough time letting go. He felt as if he was losing a part of himself. Each piece of work is a creation completely of his own, something he helped raise from its infancy to completion. Eventually, he realized releasing the paintings to a new owner was a gift, a natural process he shouldn’t allow himself to suffer through anymore.
“It’s an honor,” Murray said. “There are thousands of paintings they can buy and they chose me.
The (entire) process is like a lifecycle. It’s emotional.”
Naturally, Murray has evolved as an artist over the last five decades. His mind thinks a little differently, paying closer attention to subtlities he once never did.
“You get a different perspective and philosophy on life,” he said. “You look for simpler things that have more meaning, that has a broader audience.”
The general process remains the same, though. Murray still requires a strong connection to the subject before he even begins painting.
“There’s a saying (I like) EMTD – Enthusiasm makes the difference,” he said. “If you don’t have the enthusiasm when you start an art project, you’re in trouble.”
