“For more than two decades I’ve been intrigued by the way a painting’s surface and subject complement and compete in the viewer’s mind. In working plein air, I am excited by the way my visual experience translates into a surface language expressed through the richness of paint. Using a personal language of abstract marks, I want to share with the viewer a deeper emotional response to the world in which we live.”
At the age of eighteen, O’Donnell experienced an epiphany after an accident, which led him to pursue his love of painting. In 1995, he was invited to participate in the San Juan Capistrano Mission Paint Out as one of five guest artists from across America. Since then he has receive many of the highest awards at many of America’s most prestigious plein air invitational that include the country’s top landscape painters. In 2012, he received the highest award an artist may obtain in the State of Missouri, the Independent Artist Award, given by the Missouri Arts Council. O’Donnell takes the greatest pride in the 115 original oil paintings he created, over seven years, for the book, Painting Missouri: The Counties en Plein Air, authored by Karen Glines. Today, Billyo lives west of St. Louis in a 200-year old log cabin that was once his grandmother’s.
“For more than two decades I’ve been intrigued by the way a painting’s surface and subject complement and compete in the viewer’s mind. In working plein air, I am excited by the way my visual experience translates into a surface language expressed through the richness of paint. Using a personal language of abstract marks, I want to share with the viewer a deeper emotional response to the world in which we live.”
At the age of eighteen, O’Donnell experienced an epiphany after an accident, which led him to pursue his love of painting. In 1995, he was invited to participate in the San Juan Capistrano Mission Paint Out as one of five guest artists from across America. Since then he has receive many of the highest awards at many of America’s most prestigious plein air invitational that include the country’s top landscape painters. In 2012, he received the highest award an artist may obtain in the State of Missouri, the Independent Artist Award, given by the Missouri Arts Council. O’Donnell takes the greatest pride in the 115 original oil paintings he created, over seven years, for the book, Painting Missouri: The Counties en Plein Air, authored by Karen Glines. Today, Billyo lives west of St. Louis in a 200-year old log cabin that was once his grandmother’s.
http://www.billyoart.com/