Idris Murphy is an abstract expressionist, typically taking the landscape as his subject. Murphy has exhibited regularly at mainstream galleries since the 1970s and has exhibited regularly in the Sulman and Wynn prizes. Awards include the Hunters Hill Art Award, Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Travel Fellowship, Arts Council Special Travel Grant, Rockhampton Art Prize, Dyason bequest fund for Australian Artists overseas, Moya Doring Memorial Residence, Paris, Artist Lithographer in Residence, AGNSW, French Government Studio, Paris, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland, Irish Art Council Studio. His works are held in many collections here and overseas including Artbank, Northern Rivers College of Advanced Education, Clot/Bramsden et Georges Studio Paris, Rockhampton Art Gallery, Brisbane Grammar School, Australian National Gallery Canberra, Australian Graduate School of Management, University of Wollongong, Parliament House Canberra, Bibliotèque National de Paris, National Library, Canberra, Telstra Collection Melbourne, State Library New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Bendigo Regional Gallery, Westpac Collection, Australian Art Investment Trust.