Philip Surrey is a founding member of the Contemporary Art Society, a figurative painter, he was interested in the representation of the human figure. For much of his artistic career, Surrey used the city of Montreal as his backdrop. The painter organizes his composition with a meticulous way.

Endowed with a great sense of concentration, Philip Surrey worked each of his works with several drawings, sketches and small formats to finally end up with a painting of imposing size.

He said he liked the poetry of the city, which he represents very well in Evening in St-Henri. Like an urban chronicle, each element of the painting can tell a story. The street of a working-class district with the skyscrapers of the city center as a background, a lone pedestrian turning to observe a couple embracing are all sources of inspiration to imagine a panoply of scenarios.

In 1964 publisher John McConnell offered Surrey the opportunity to paint full-time and earn a salary. Surrey accepted and, for twelve years, as a salaried artist, he continued to paint and to present several solo exhibitions; he also signs an exclusive contract with Galerie Gilles Corbeil in Montreal.