Change of scenery

By Tamar Satov

When Bob McMurray turns 65 this month, he’ll not only retire from the Surrey, BC, firm he’s been with for more than 40 years, he’ll also embark on a new career: full-time artist.

It’s a natural transition for McMurray, an award-winning painter who has exhibited his works throughout BC, as well as in Calgary, Halifax and Seattle. Until now, he’s struggled to find time for his art. “Sometimes I work all day, break for dinner and then go back into the studio — it’s pretty intense,” says the senior partner at McMurray Roberts Heming & Wyborn.

That was certainly the case when the BC Institute commissioned McMurray to paint three scenes to commemorate its 100th anniversary this year. “It took me two-and-a-half months, including six vacation days, to complete them,” McMurray recalls. The paintings, including a 3½-ft. x 10-ft. oil triptych of the Vancouver waterfront, are on display at the institute, and various-sized prints are selling for $180 to $4,000, with net proceeds going to the CA Education Foundation.

But time isn’t the only challenge the representational artist has overcome — McMurray is also red-green colour blind. Instead of trying to replicate colours when he’s working from nature or photographs, he selects his own palettes and focuses on light and dark shading. “It frees me up and gives me a built-in style,” he says.

McMurray, who took up oil painting in 1973 and watercolour in 1986, draws inspiration from trips to coastal areas, such as rustic villages on BC’s Queen Charlotte Islands and the southern fishing ports of Nova Scotia. His work is in private and corporate collections in Canada and abroad and has been used by the City of Surrey for greeting cards and an annual report cover. “I’ve also designed my firm’s Christmas card for the past 20 years,” adds McMurray.

Those Christmas cards aren’t the only crossover between McMurray’s two disciplines: he also gives seminars on income tax rules and regulations for artists. “Some might say accounting and art is an unusual combination,” says McMurray. “I say I try to use both sides of my brain.”