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Buckden Roundabout
March 2019
A State of Change
A State of Change
An Exhibition of paintings of the A14 Upgrade
by Michael Murfin
I would like to
inform you of
an important
exhibition of
work by Mi-
chael Murfin,
to be held at
the St Neots
Museum 13th
March to 27th
April
2019.
Michael is the
only
notable
artist recording the A14 Upgrade, Huntingdon to Cambridge.
He has observed this major public project with both intellec-
tual and artistic skill in his principle medium of oil paint.
His personal knowledge of
this area made him want to
express the huge, and
mostly positive, changes to
the local landscape and
communities, whilst his
passion for history has not
been disappointed by the
magnificent archaeological
finds.
In his loyalty to his home
town of St Neots, Michael
thought it appropriate for
his works' debut to take
place in the Exhibition Room at
St Neots Museum.
You may be interested to know that Michael's paintings can
be found in many public and private collections including the
Contemporary Art Society, the Government Art Collection, the
Arts Council, DeBeers, Leeds City Art Gallery and Christchurch
Mansion, Ipswich.
Biography
Michael Murfin was born in 1954 in St Neots, Cambridgeshire
and now lives and works in The Offords. After his art educa-
tion at the Polytechnics of Leicester, Trent (Nottingham) and
Birmingham his work was promoted in the UK and abroad by
the Piccadilly Gallery in London. Works by Michael can cur-
rently be seen at Henry Miller Fine Art.
See also http://www.michaelmurfinartist.com (all of Michael
Murfin's works can be viewed here).
Instagram: murfinmichaelartist
www.stneotsmuseum.org.uk
Interview with Michael Murfin: A State of Change
"Michael, can you explain what inspired you to document the
A14 Upgrade?"
"I've always subscribed to the idea of finding art "in your own
back yard".
The A14 Upgrade project has been a brilliant subject in that
respect. I live in Offord Cluny and this part of the Ouse valley
has felt special to me since childhood when on fine mornings
in summer, I would get up early and, with Mum and Dad, walk
to the local gravel pits before anyone else was about. We
would watch birds and see foxes padding along the tracks.
I live within walking distance of two construction sites - one
where a bridge has been built at the top of Silver Street in
Godmanchester to cross the new road, and another location
along the river just north of Buckden marina where the A14
will cross both the river and the railway.
As an artist I have been attracted to the complexity and preci-
sion of the construction process and the challenge of de-
picting so many different things - people in high viz, machin-
ery, scaffolding, mud, buzzards, cattle and trees, concrete and
steel.
I like the quirky, often poignant, juxtaposition of newly built
and long established features - and at the moment I'm rather
comforted by how nature seems to be rubbing along reasona-
bly well with this gigantic new addition to the landscape.I sup-
pose it is natural to feel uneasy when such a familiar scene is
disrupted but can't help thinking that the Romans, having
pushed through the same area when they built Ermine Street,
would have given the current project an approving nod.”
Aggregate, 2017, 31 x 38cm, Oil on board.
Archaeology (Roman Settlement),
41 x 31cm, Oil on board
Clearance, 2017, 76 x 122cm, Oil on board
Steel and Sedge, 2018, 42 x 63cm, Oil on board