Landscape Oil Paintings by John O'Keefe Jr.

"This painting started as a study on trees, light, and shadow. However, as I painted, I constantly sat under this tree, enjoying its shade and looking up at the clear blue sky through its branches and leaves. This image reminds me of times as a child when my brother and I would lie in the grass and look up through the branches and leaves of trees, wondering what it would be like to be a bird flying in there. There is no war, violence, or bad news in this place, just the shade of the tree, a calm breeze, and no worries." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Name: 'Big Cork Tree'
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 8" x 10" inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: SOLD
• Print Availability: Giclee Paper, Giclee Canvas
• Free Tutorial: Tutorial

"I love paths and enjoy walking into my paintings. This scene is where I could live, and you can see my house in the distance. In this scene, I imagined walking home from a trip to the local town market. While modern technology is great, it can also make life expensive and complicated, so in this scene, there is none of that. Life here is not governed minute-by-minute by the hands-on wristwatch. Also, the thing about paths is that they can lead to or from anywhere that your imagination wants to go." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Summer in the Valley
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 8" x 10" inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: SOLD
• Print Availability: Giclee Paper, Giclee Canvas
• Free Tutorial: Tutorial

"Sometimes I don't want to travel directly to a place seen in a painting, so in this painting, I just walked myself near a farm, but the path only goes near it and not to it. I could walk across the grass to get there if I wanted to, but I found myself just walking by, heading to another place not seen in the painting. Growing up, woods and forests always had a sense of mystery, and I like the mystery in this painting; just what is in the woods where this path goes?" ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Just Passing Through
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 5" x 7" inch (12.7 x 17.8 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Original Painting Availability: SOLD

"This small study is loved by many, and the original sold at an auction sponsored by The Salmagundi Club at their New York City gallery. I met the woman who purchased it as a gift for her friend and was convinced she would fall in love with it the same as she had. It was my first auction, and the experience was thrilling. I still get emotional when I think about my paintings hanging in someone's home. I get very attached to them because each one is a reflection of my imagination and my daydreams. Also, painting calms me from day to day stresses of life." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: The Road Home
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 4" x 5" inch (10.2 x 12.7 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: SOLD

"This piece also has great sentimental value. I set out to capture a place near my home that my wife and I have visited several times. It's a peaceful place hidden away. What makes this painting precious to me is something my late father-in-law once said. Being a very religious man, he said he would lose himself in the painting and imagined himself visiting this place, sitting on the rock overlooking the pond, and then talking to God in prayer. He loved this painting, and it made me feel good that it brought happy and peaceful thoughts to him." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Lilac Pond
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 16" x 20" inch (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
• Claessens: Fine Weave Double Oil Primed Linen
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: FOR SALE
• Print Availability: Giclee Paper, Giclee Canvas
• Free Tutorial: Tutorial

"My first miniature painting. I did this painting as a break from my larger works, which can take me several weeks to several months to complete. I wanted to finish something quickly, so I did this little painting. I was pleased with it and freestyled without any composition or concept when I started. I just painted what I was thinking about: a nice country scene away from the hustle and bustle of the real world." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Path Out of the Woods
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 4" x 6" inch (10.2 x 15.2 cm)
• Smooth, Acrylic Primed, Artist Board
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Original Painting Availability: SOLD

"This is my first large-scale painting, and much thought and time went into its creation. I love the Hudson River School artists and wanted to capture their style and feel in this painting. Using some old Victorian engravings as reference material, this is what came out. I worked on this painting during what turned out to be the last visit by my wife's mother and father. Sadly they both passed away shortly after that of cancer. However, they stayed with us for over a month on that final visit, and I worked on the painting in my living room, where we all spent most of our time talking, hanging out, and playing games. Everyone contributed to the development of this piece; we all kept reviewing its progress each day and offering ideas and thoughts about what was happening on this mountaintop. So this painting holds fond memories for me for those reasons." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: River Through the Adirondacks
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 16" x 20" inch (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Original Painting Availability: SOLD
• Print Availability: Giclee Paper, Giclee Canvas
• Free Tutorial: Tutorial

"This painting was a tree study based on an old Victorian engraving. My wife's mother watched this painting develop from start to finish during a long (over one month) family visit. It was her favorite painting, and she loved this place. I decided she would have this painting as a gift, but she would have to wait until it dried and I could varnish it. She agreed because she and her husband were going to California to sell some property before moving closer to the family. However, while in California, tragedy struck. She became very ill and died a few weeks later of cancer. I was not going to sell the piece because it was her painting in my heart. However, my wife convinced me that her mother would want the painting to bring joy to someone and that her mother would be upset if I held it back from a sale. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to offer it for sale. However, this painting will always be her painting in my heart." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Old Olive Tree Path
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 8" x 10" inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: FOR SALE
• Print Availability: Giclee Paper, Giclee Canvas
• Free Tutorial: Tutorial

"I created this painting during a very stressful time in my life. My daughter, who suffers from a serious genetic defect in her skin, a condition known as Epidermolysis Bullosa, was sick and in the hospital with a life-threatening blood infection. She has had dozens of close calls because of her condition, but this one was close. My wife stayed at the hospital, but my son and I had to travel home at night, and this painting is what happened while I was at home. I became obsessed with its completion and hardly slept for the entire week she was in the hospital. Looking back, I see this painting as an escape from everything happening then, and I became lost in the scene. This painting has special meaning for me, and my daughter did recover." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: The Field's Edge
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 12" x 16" inch (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: SOLD
• Print Availability: Giclee Paper, Giclee Canvas
• Free Tutorial: Tutorial

"This painting tested my ability to duplicate a detailed scene using oil paint. Being relatively new to oil painting, I wanted to test myself out, and I had doubts that I could reproduce a photograph accurately on canvas. I did this reproduction purely by eye, with no grid lines. I was very pleased with this study, and my confidence in using oil paints grew, as you can see in my future paintings. A fellow artist once told me that I should see improvements in my skills every ten paintings or so, and when I compare this painting with my next painting (The Field's Edge), it seems he was right. 'Prairie Storm' was a turning point for me, and in the future, I felt like I could be a good painter and was ready to develop my compositions without doubts or hesitation." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Prairie Storm
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 6" x 12" inch (15.2 x 30.5 cm)
• Smooth, Acrylic Primed, Artist Board
• Winsor & Newton: Artist Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: FOR SALE

"This painting is special to me because it is special to my wife. Even though she has developed a greater love for many of my later paintings, this was the first one I remember her loving. It became special to me when she told me how much she loved the painting and how she pictured us living there together. Her expressions about the piece were almost the same as mine. I thought of where she and I could live, and the scene flowed from me. It went like this: I want a bridge here, a house there, and an old barn next to the house. I want it all surrounded by trees and bushes, and we could raise cows or chickens. I will keep this painting forever, even though it's no longer her favorite, just because she told me how she loved it and that she pictured herself living there with me." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: The Bridge Home
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 8" x 10" inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
• Smooth, Acrylic Primed, Artist Board
• Winsor & Newton: WINTON Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: NOT FOR SALE

"This painting was another landscape study based on a photograph I found in a public database. However, the clouds represent something new for me: My wife, Jennifer, loves photography, and she took some pictures of clouds that she thought were pretty, and I used one of those cloud pictures in this painting. In most of my later paintings, the clouds I paint are from one of Jennifer's many cloud pictures. I created a database of her pictures that is now part of my permanent reference library. Using her clouds makes me feel like I am putting a little bit of her into my art." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Peaceful Hills
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 12" x 16" inch (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: WINTON Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: FOR SALE
• Print Availability: Giclee Paper, Giclee Canvas

"My first sunset painting. I love a beautiful sunset, which I wanted to capture in this piece. This scene is another place that I want to live: a house out in the middle of nowhere with just my wife, Jennifer, and me. (The kids are all grown up and living on their own.) These are some of the thoughts that went through my mind as I worked on this painting. Also, the pond and the firewood stacked on the side of the house will fuel the massive fireplace inside the cozy little cabin. Everything is just as it should be. It seems so peaceful and perfect. I put the two of us outside the front door, taking a moment together to enjoy the end of the day. Sometimes when I paint, I get so absorbed in the process that I disconnect from the real world. Someone could be standing next to me, talking to me, and I would be like, 'Huh?' Others have loved this painting for the same reasons I do... your imagination can just run wild picturing yourself there." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Moment of Reflection
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 6" x 12" inch (15.2 x 30.5 cm)
• Smooth, Acrylic Primed, Artist Board
• Winsor & Newton: WINTON Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: FOR SALE
• Print Availability: Giclee Paper, Giclee Canvas

"Another of my compositions, and I used no reference material other than a photo of clouds my wife took. As a child, my family regularly went boating down the Connecticut River. Now and then, we would find a small tributary feeding the river, and with our small boat (and depth finder), we would venture into these less traveled areas. These thoughts and memories ran through my mind as I created this piece." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: New England River
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 8" x 10" inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: WINTON Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: FOR SALE
• Print Availability: Giclee Paper, Giclee Canvas

"This painting was my first true solo composition. The painting just formed as I was laying down my paints. Oil paints are my favorite medium because I have time to move the paint around and change things before the paint dries. I like the early evening part of the day when we (and others) start winding down from the day's activities. In this picture, I see my family living in this house. It's fall, which is my wife's favorite time of year. The house overlooks a body of water, which was influenced by my wife's dream to own a house on the water. My son has a particular fondness for this piece, and I have decided to give him the original painting." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Peaceful Connecticut Valley in Autumn
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 12" x 16" inch (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: WINTON Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: NOT FOR SALE
• Free Tutorial: Tutorial

"This painting is a study of a painting by Eduard Boehm. I started to get more comfortable building up the scene in layers: the Sky first, the island on the right, and the water, then the tree line on the left, and the small hills and details in the foreground. My wife says she keeps expecting to see Bugs Bunny come out of the woods. That wasn't the feeling I was going for with the painting, but it was only my third oil painting." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Lakeside Path
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 11" x 14" inch (28.0 x 35.6 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Stretched Canvas
• Winsor & Newton: WINTON Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: NOT FOR SALE
• Free Tutorial: Tutorial

"This was a study of an Albert Bierstadt painting titled 'The Buffalo Trail.' I worked on only a small area from the original painting. My painting looks different from the original, and my colors are different. My lack of skill with water is evident. One person asked why I didn't paint yellow lines on the road! I told them it was not a road but a lake. They said, 'Ohhh.'" ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Buffalo Trail Revisited
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 8" x 10" inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
• Smooth, Acrylic Primed, Artist Board
• Winsor & Newton: WINTON Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: NOT FOR SALE

"My first oil painting. This painting was a study of a Thomas Doughty painting titled "Autumn on the Hudson," painted in 1850. It took me weeks to complete this 7" x 5" painting. I took my time. I had yet to learn what I was doing, but I tried to follow some basic rules I read about in a beginner's oil painting book I had recently purchased. I love the Hudson River School painters, and this painting was the beginning of my journey to become an artist like them." ~ John O'Keefe Jr.

• Title: Autumn on the Hudson Revisited
• Artist: John O'Keefe Jr.
• 7" x 5" inch (17.8 x 12.7 cm)
• Medium Textured, Acrylic Primed, Artist Board
• Winsor & Newton: WINTON Series Oil Paints
• Winsor & Newton: Dammar (final varnish)
• Original Painting Availability: NOT FOR SALE
• Free Tutorial: Tutorial