I've just uploaded a full case study of Flight Path — my latest sculpture marking the midpoint of the @transpenninetrail — to my website.
It’s a meeting point, a place to pause, and a celebration of balance between nature and people walking their own journeys.
Located at @rspb_old_moor Barnsley.
✨ Read the full story and see how it came to life — link in bio.
#FlightPath #PublicArt #TransPennineTrail #BarnsleyArt #Sculpture #ContemporaryArt #OutdoorArt #YorkshireArt #ArtInNature #RSPBOldMoor #TrailArt
I went to the launch of the Barnsley Seam last night and was really impressed. It’s a brilliant piece of new public realm work. The roses create a strong atmosphere, and the surrounding benches and layout of the space work really well together. Well done Barnsley Council
I’ve been sketching versions of this artwork for the past four years. It began as a simple doodle and gradually grew into a way of expressing the power of imagination and hope.
The drawing is rooted in childhood memories from when I was six or seven, at St Joseph’s Junior School in Kendray. Our playground had a red brick retaining wall, with higher fields beyond it. On windy days, the air used to swirl in one corner, and I vividly remember spreading my coat wide, hands tucked into my pockets like makeshift wings, convinced that if I timed my jump just right, I could lift off and fly. I even persuaded a few others that if we jumped from the wall at the right moment, we would glide around the playground. Of course, we never did — but the feeling of possibility and daydreaming stayed with me.
Around the same time, one midweek afternoon, the large television on its wheeled trolley was brought into the classroom and we watched The Red Balloon (Le Ballon Rouge), directed by Albert Lamorisse. I loved it then and have returned to it many times since. Made in 1956, it’s an almost silent French short film about a young boy named Pascal and his magical friendship with a sentient red balloon in Paris. The balloon follows him through the city, protects him from bullies, and quietly defies adult authority. When the balloon is destroyed, balloons from across the city break free, gather around Pascal, and lift him into the sky.
It’s a gentle, poetic film about imagination, freedom, and loss. As we grow older, I think we often lose the imaginations we once had as children — perhaps because we stop actively developing them after school. This print is about reconnecting with those childhood daydreams, and about how imagination, even briefly, can lift us above the everyday.
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Daydream
Limited edition, signed in pencil, and embossed with artist mark
Supplied un-framed, 15 of each size available. Six sizes available.
Available as square and portrait formats.
Giclée printed on 350gsm paper
£70 / £45 / £70 + P&P
Over the past few months I’ve been working at various scales — from the large 'Flight Path' sculpture, a 4-metre-high public sculpture on the @TransPennineTrail at @RSPBOldMoor , to smaller works created for the home. My latest home-sized sculpture, Continuous Line Bird, is now available. It began life as a single, unbroken drawing — the pen never lifted from the page — capturing the essence of a bird in one continuous gesture.
Now, that line has taken shape as a minimal, three-dimensional form cut from acrylic and mounted on a solid wooden base, available in cedar, oak, or walnut.
Now available through my online shop. Link in bio
#Sculpture #MadeInYorkshire #ContemporaryArt #HomeEditions
One of my favourite moments in creating sculpture is when an idea finally leaves the page and becomes something real. Drawings and models all lead to that point when lines on paper turn into shapes in steel.
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It’s always a mix of excitement and nerves — watching ideas that once existed only in my mind then sketchbook take on weight, texture, and presence. Each cut, weld, and surface tells part of the story. The material has its own character — strong, resilient, and responsive to time and place.
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Whether it’s Flight Path, Industrious Revolutions, or any of my other works, that transformation from thought to metal is where art meets engineering, and where imagination becomes something you can stand beside.
#Sculpture #PublicArt #CortenSteel #ArtProcess #ArtistStudio #MakingArt
Over the years, I’ve spent countless days drawing and sculpting birds — they’ve always found their way into my work in one form or another.
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It’s lovely revisiting this edition of four British garden birds I drew a few years ago: the robin, wren, sparrow, and blackbird. Each one a familiar presence in our gardens — small but full of character.
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This set is available to buy from my online store — a little celebration of our everyday birdlife. 🐦
. @rspb@rspb_old_moor #BritishBirds #Drawing #PrintEdition #Robin #Wren #Sparrow #Blackbird #PatrickMurphyStudio #ArtPrints #NatureArt
In much of my public artwork, I choose Corten steel for its ability to change with the environment.
It weathers naturally, deepening in colour and texture, and becomes part of the landscape rather than something imposed upon it. For me, the material reflects many of the ideas I explore in sculpture — memory, resilience, transformation, and time.
It’s strong, honest, and enduring — yet never static.The two works shown below 'Industrious Revolutions' a full scale horse and 'Flight Path' both use Corten for exactly these reasons: it’s both structure and story — a material that tells its own tale as the years pass. #CortenSteel #PublicArt #Sculpture #Materiality #PlaceMaking #ContemporaryArt
