Eliot O'Hara (June 14, 1890 – July 30, 1969) was an American artist and educator known for his masterful
watercolor
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...
s, especially his impressionistic landscapes. The
Ogunquit Museum of American Art
The Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) is an art museum located in Ogunquit, Maine. The Museum officially opened in 1953 and was founded by Lost Generation artist Henry Strater. Situated near Perkins Cove, the Museum and its three acres of s ...
in Maine has over 120 of his watercolors, representing all aspects of his work. His paintings are in the collections of many American museums, and have been the subject of exhibitions throughout the US. He was an influential educator through his nearly 40 years of teaching, writing, and filmmaking.
Life
Eliot O'Hara was born in 1890, in Waltham, Massachusetts to Daniel and Mayfred O'Hara. His father was the owner of the
O'Hara Waltham Dial Company and Eliot went into the family business. In 1923 he began teaching himself to paint with watercolors while continuing to work at the family factory. In 1927, O'Hara took a few courses at the Boston Museum School and at the School of Fine arts and Crafts in Boston and then, in 1928, he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in painting.
In 1929 O'Hara undertook an epic journey through Soviet Russia. Traveling by train, horseback and foot, he produced 130 sketches and watercolors that he later completed at a studio in Paris.
The paintings were exhibited in the Soviet Union and at galleries in London, Boston, and New York.
A selection of the paintings toured throughout the United States.
He remained an avid traveler and
plein air painter throughout his life, locations for his paintings include Peru, Australia, Japan, China, Indonesia, and Thailand.
In 1931, he opened the Eliot O'Hara School for Watercolor Painting in
Goose Rocks Beach, Maine. The school was active until it burned down in the
Great Fires of 1947. After the fire, O'Hara continued to offer classroom instruction at summer workshops around the United States.
O'Hara authored his first book of watercolor instruction in 1931, his final book was published in 1966.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, from 1943–44, he served in the Camouflage Section, Bureau of Ships, U.S. Navy.
In the late 1940s O'Hara began making art education films for
Encyclopaedia Britannica Films
An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by articl ...
, his last film was made in 1961. In 1948 O'Hara was among the first water-colorists inducted into the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...
.
O'Hara died in Washington D.C. in 1969 from cancer of the kidney.
Art
Beginning with his first exhibitions, O'Hara was noted for his technical skill in watercolor. He preserved and advanced his mastery of the medium throughout his life, achieving a "miraculous"
level of skill. For O'Hara, mastery was not an end but a means to achieve expression of his artistic voice. He wrote that "the problems of techniques and materials are of relatively minor importance" and that the goal is to use technique to achieve "the greatest possible emotional thrust."
O'Hara mainly painted outdoors, finding in nature a reliable source of inspiration. His later landscapes became less complex tending towards simple washes with spare, obvious brushstrokes. These later restrained and abstracted landscapes, of surprising simplicity, evoke a calm, profound power that "stand with the finest of American watercolors
".
O'Hara worked primarily with transparent watercolors but he was open to other media. He taught himself several printmaking techniques, made collages,
experimented with acrylics, and sometimes painted with gouache and casein.
Teaching
O'Hara taught watercolor painting at his school in Maine and at classes sponsored by universities, museums and art associations around the United States. He said that his teaching was "predicated on the assumption that art itself cannot be taught".
Therefore, his teaching focused on the development of technical skills as a means to self expression. His student, Carl Schmalz, attempted to capture the organization and content of his classroom teaching in the book ''Water Color Lessons from Eliot O'Hara''.
In addition to his classroom teaching, O'Hara wrote books on watercolor painting and made art education films.
His notable students include Carl Schmalz,
George Campbell Tinning,
Elsie Lower Pomeroy,
Standish Backus, and
Marvin Mangus
Marvin Dale Mangus (1924–2009) was an American geologist and landscape painter. He was giving the honor of driving a purely symbolic wood stake prior to start of drilling the actual oil well by the Atlantic Richfield Corporation, his employer. ...
.
Filmography
The following films were released by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films.
* ''Brush Techniques: The language of watercolor'' (1947). Demonstration by Eliot O'Hara.
* ''Painting Reflections in Water'' (1947). Demonstration by Eliot O'Hara.
* ''Painting an Abstraction, using planes'' (1950). Demonstration by Eliot O'Hara.
* ''Color Keying in Art and Living'' (1951).
* ''Painting Trees with Eliot O'Hara'' (1954). Best Art Film award, Cleveland, 1954.
*''Rhythm in Paint'' (1954). Features demonstrations by Margaret Sheppard .
*''Oriental brushwork'' (1956). Features demonstrations by
Tyrus Wong
Tyrus Wong (October 25, 1910 – December 30, 2016) was a Chinese-born American artist. He was a painter, animator, calligrapher, muralist, ceramicist, lithographer and kite maker, as well as a set designer and storyboard artist. One of the ...
and
Chiura Obata
was a well-known Japanese-American artist and popular art teacher. A self-described "roughneck", Obata went to the United States in 1903, at age 17. After initially working as an illustrator and commercial decorator, he had a successful career ...
. The film was digitized and re-released on DVD. A clip appears in the 2017 film ''Tyrus'' by
Pamela Tom
Pamela Tom is a 5th generation Chinese American producer, director, and screenwriter. Her films often explore the Chinese experience in the Western world, social justice, feminism, and religion.
Early life
Tom's family immigrated to the U.S. f ...
''.''
*''Painting clouds'' (1956).
* ''Painting crowds of people'' (1956).
* ''Painting Shadows'' (1957)''.''
* ''Drawing a Portrait (1957).''
* ''Painting a Portrait (1957).''
*''Painting with Calligraphy (1958).'' Features demonstrations by
George Post, and Paul Travis. Awarded Certificate of Merit, Cleveland, 1956.
The following films were released by Bee Cross-Media.
* ''Sea and surf'' (1960).
* ''Restraint'' (1961).
The following film has an unknown publisher.
* ''Space cutting'' (1961). Discusses neoplasticism, features the works of John McLaughlin and Pieter Mondriaan.
Bibliography
Books authored by O'Hara
* O'Hara, Eliot (1931). ''Sgraffito prints.'' Washington, D.C., G. Dunthorne.
*O'Hara, E. (1932). ''Making watercolor behave: with two reproductions of paintings and twenty-one photographs demonstrating brush work.''New York: Minton, Balch & company.
* O'Hara, E. (1935). ''Making the brush behave: fourteen lessons in watercolor painting; with twenty-nine illustrations.'' New York: Minton, Balch & company.
* O'Hara, E. (1938). ''Watercolor fares forth: eighteen experiments in watercolor painting with twenty-eight illustrations, ten in color.'' New York: Minton, Balch & company.
*O'Hara, E. (1939). ''Art teachers' primer: forty-four assignments to art classes, with eighteen blackboard diagrams and a frontispiece in color.''New York: Minton, Balch & company.
* O'Hara, E. (1946). ''Watercolor at large: nineteen chapters on the renaissance of watercolor, with thirty illustrations, two in full color.'' New York: Minton, Balch & company.
* O'Hara, E. (1966). ''
Watercolor with O'Hara.'' New York: Putnam.
Books coauthored by O'Hara
* Walker, P. Flory. (1948). ''Portraits in the making with Dorothy Short and Eliot O'Hara.'' New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. The 1949 edition was entitled: ''Watercolor Portraiture.''
*Flory, Phoebe. (1985). ''
Watercolor Portraiture : A Practical Guide.'' New York: Dover Publications. Revised version of the ''Watercolor Portraiture'' (1949).
Books featuring O'Hara's work
* Schmalz, C. (1974). ''
Watercolor Lessons from Eliot O'Hara.'' New York: Watson-Guptill.
*O'Hara, E., Schmalz, C., Eaton, T. A., & Boca Raton Museum of Art. (1994). ''Eliot O'Hara: The world in watercolor, 1925–1969''. Boca Raton, FL: Boca Raton Museum of Art.
*Meek, W. (2018). ''ELIOT O'HARA's Ring of Fire in Watercolor''
Blurb Self Publishing
Museums with O'Hara's works online
The following museums have one or more of O'Hara's works available in their online databases.
*
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College: contains examples spanning 5 decades of O'Hara's work, including works from his journey to the Soviet Union.
*
Portland Museum of Art
The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine.
History
The PMA use ...
: contains 6 paintings by O'Hara.
*
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is an art museum located in Brunswick, Maine. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the museum is a part of Bowdoin College and has been located in the Walker Art Building since 1894. The museum is ...
: contains several portraits by O'Hara. In addition, there are works by other artists donated to the museum by Eliot O'Hara; some of these works appear as illustrations in his books.
*
Anchorage Museum: several of O'Hara's paintings from the 1940s.
*
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...
: aquatints and etchings by O'Hara as well as several photographs of O'Hara.
*
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...
: a painting from 1938 and one from 1968.
*
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
: paintings from 1940s and 50's, in black and white.
References
External links
*The Eliot O'Hara holdings in th
Mead Museum's collection database*Eliot O'Hara holdings at th
Smithsonian American Art Museum*O'Hara's fil
''Painting with Calligraphy''at the Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:OHara, Eliot
20th-century American painters
American male painters
American watercolorists
20th-century American male artists