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John O'Shea Biography
O’Shea’s primary legacy was the powerfully interpretive seascapes painted near his home in the Carmel Highlands.

John O’Shea was one of the leading artists in the Carmel area between 1917-1945. His versatile and prolific body of work became known for its sophisticated blending of influences from American Impressionism, realism, and abstraction. O’Shea’s paintings in oil, watercolor and charcoal, his bold, vibrant paintings of seascapes, landscapes, figures, fantasies and portraits were very avant-garde.

John O’Shea was born in Ballintaylor, Ireland. Early art studies where at Dublin and Cork. He emigrated to America in 1892 at the age of 16. He lived briefly in NYC working a short time at Tiffany & Company as an artisan-engraver. He continued his studies at the Adelphi Academy for two years with the portraitist Barnard Whittaker, and at the Art Students League of New York with George B. Bridgman. During one summer he spent time at the studio of Charles Harry Eaton in New Jersey.

In the spring of 1913 O’Shea moved to Pasadena and began his active artistic career. Two exhibitions, one at the studio of Kenneth Avery and another at the Friday Morning Club (LA) were well received and extolled by Antony Anderson describing O’Shea’s works as “wonderfully beautiful interpretations of our landscape, full of vibrating light and color”.

In 1917 O’Shea settled on the Monterey Peninsula. While maintaining a studio in his home, he became active with the art community in both Carmel and San Francisco. O'Shea returned to New York in November to December 1921, and put on an exhibition of about 28 watercolors and oils at the Kingore Galleries on 5th Avenue. Two years after his marriage to Molly Shaughnessy in 1922, the couple built a home near Smugglers Cove in Carmel Highlands. The O’Shea’s led a very active social life. One of their neighbors was artist Theodore Morrow Criley who would become O’Shea’s closest friend and painting companion. Other friends included poet Robinson Jeffers, photographer Edward Weston, artists Thomas Parkhurst, William Clothier Watts, William Ritschel, Armin Hansen and Burton Boundey (who had two one-man shows with O’Shea).

O’Shea had strong ties with the Carmel Art Association beginning with its initial meeting in 1927. He was inducted into “Carmel’s Own Hall of Fame” in 1932. Because he knew and loved plants, he was asked to design the garden and patio in front of the association’s current location on Dolores Street.

In 1934 he served briefly as president when papers of incorporation were executed; he signed as a director when the papers were filed and remained as such when fellow artist Armin Hansen became the first president of the newly incorporated Association on February 9, 1934. O’Shea was elected president of the CAA in 1938 and in 1939.

O’Shea continued to paint and having successful exhibitions, often solo, for many years receiving much praise for his work. Probably the highest artistic tribute was paid him by the Director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, who was “sure that the gorgeous color and design of Mr. O’Shea’s canvases will make a tremendous impression with the San Francisco public,” and arranged for a showing of sixty-three of his works at the Legion in 1934.

Although trained in the East, it was through his travels in the Southwest, the South Seas, Mexico, and Hawaii, that O’Shea developed his unique style – a blend of American Impressionism, realism, and abstraction. A highly versatile artist, he left a legacy of over five hundred works in oil, watercolor, and charcoal. John O’Shea died at home on April 29, 1956 at the age of eighty.

Member: American Watercolor Society; Society of Independent Artists, New York; American Artists Professional League; Bohemian Club; Bay Region Art Association (SF); California Art Club; Carmel Art Association (director, 1934; president twice, in 1937 and 1938); Carmel Arts & Crafts Club; SFAA; The New Group, Monterey (CA); Society for Sanity in Art

Exhibited: Friday Morning Club (LA), 1914 (solo);  Carmel Arts and Crafts Club, 1917; SFAA, 1918; Helgesen Gallery (SF) 1st one-man exhibition; LACMA, 1919-21; Kingore Galleries (NYC), 1921; Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, 1922; Grace Nicholson Galleries  (Pasadena), Temple Art Gallery (Tucson), Beaux Arts Galerie (SF), 1928; CAA, 1929; Denny-Watrous Gallery (Carmel), 1931; 1933; CPLH, 1934; E.B. Crocker Art Gallery (Sacramento), 1935; Del Monte Art Gallery, 1936, 1940; William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts (Kansas City, Missouri), 1937; GGIE, 1939; Calif. State Fair, 1941 (1st prize); MPMA; Walnut Creek (CA) Civic Arts Gallery, 1986 and Carmel AA, 1993 (retrospectives).

In: Mills College (Oakland); Harrison Library (Carmel); Carmel Art Association; San Francisco Museum; Palace of the Legion of Honor (SF); Bohemian Club (SF); Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art; Municipal Gallery of Modern Art (Dublin, Ireland); Irvine Museum (CA); among other places.

Source: Robert W. Edwards/Jennie V. Cannon: The Untold History of the Carmel and Berkeley Art Colonies (2012). Artists in California 1786-1940 (Hughes/2002); John O’Shea and Friends/Carmel Art Association, 1993; Plein Air Painters of California/The North (Weshphal/1986; Monterey: The Artist’s view, 1925-1945. (1982).