Mr Murray has just taken home two awards from the recent Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize exhibition at the South Australian Museum.

Visitors to the the exhibition chose his rainforest-inspired piece titled Abor Sole as the People's Choice Dr Wendy Wickes Memoriam Prize winner and members of professional scientific societies voted him the Scientists' Choice Award winner.

“There is something emotive about a solitary tree,” the keen horticulturalist said this week.

“They are not copied from anything in particular, just out of my head,” 

“I’ve always wandered around the bush and now I’m sculpting I take a lot more notice of tree structures.”

He creates his nature-inspired works in isolation, portraying trees in their full-form.

“There’s a certain amount of physics behind a tree structure,” he said.

“The foliage describes the condition of the atmospheric environment whereas the roots reveal the narrative of the subterranean environment.

“I’ve just always had an appreciation of the natural form and the tree form.”

Being voted as the most popular work by the visiting scientific community was a rewarding experience, he said.

“I think there was a new perspective of the tree a lot of biologists would appreciate seeing the roots balance the top of the tree,” he said.

Mr Murray understands science himself, completing a degree in biology before finding a love for horticulture.

“It just appeared like 10 years of lab work was ahead of me, which I wasn’t interested in at all,” he said.

He does admit he applies his scientific brain to his daily life.

“I’m a very reason, factual based person,” he said.

“The scientific approach does come out in my life.”

Mr Murray’s work begins with a stainless steel structure he then wraps with copper wire, quite often brazing around the trunks for extra detail. Abor Sole took five weeks of seven to eight hour days to complete.

“I start by making a frame and work from there,” he said.

He said his time in Queensland and bush walks around his home are expressed in his works.

“I do get up the back of our place because we are close to the national park and state forest here,” he said.

He combines this passion with a keen interest in an “environmental system that relies on a delicate balance between carbon dioxide and oxygen”.