For the first time in Orlando, artist-at-large Elaine Murphy will be doing a live painting demonstration at Orlando’s Best Art Gallery, Baterbys Art Gallery, on June 8, 2012 – Friday. Complimentary drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served for this “SecondFridays” event which starts at 6pm.

Elaine Murphy is a native of Dublin, Ireland. She is an Irish artist and designer who is currently based in beautiful Naples, Florida. She grew up in Dublin in a show business family, : her father Mike, being one of Irelands most famous and respected television hosts, and her mother Eileen was a former fashion model.

Elaine trained as a fashion illustrator and studied fine art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Elaine soon expanded her creative pursuits from fashion to jewelry design to abstract and figurative art. She also founded her own factory devoted to her ceramic designs and home accessories.

After performing as a high fashion model in Dublin and London, Elaine returned to her true passion, her art. She worked in London for the renowned fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, while illustrating and designing for several women's high fashion magazines, including “Image”, “Woman's Way” and “U”. Her design work has been celebrated and sold worldwide: she has designed for a number of leading brands, including Waterford Crystal, Wedgewood and Riverdance.

Elaine moved to Palm Desert, California in 2000 and focused on her fine art large format figurative and abstract paintings. A collector once described her painting style as “loose and fluid, with emotional overtones conveyed by elegant lines.The combination of abstraction and bold figurative lines conspires to make her expressions on canvas truly unique”. Her paintings now hang in many private U.S, international and celebrity collections.

Elaine returned to her first love, fashion, last year and has launched the “ELAINE MURPHY ART TO WEAR” Collection. This features hand painted clothes, and one of a kind necklaces, bracelets and earrings. She is an avid animal lover and supporter of animal protection focused charities. She and her partner George have several rescued animals.

The viewer may find traces of Abstract Expressionism in her work. “In my paintings, I love to combine raw, spontaneous abstraction with minimal, suggestive lines to express sensuality, fluidity, and elegance,” she says. The best description of artworks in the category, as popularized by Jackson Pollock, William De Kooning, Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman amongst others, is that they are highly charged, gestural, alternating between abstract work and powerful iconic figurative images and created through a dynamic process. Learn more about Abstract Expressionism here.