Painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer and teacher, born in Leicester where he attended the College of Art, 1931–4, then Royal College of Art, 1934–7, where his teachers included Eric Ravilious and John Nash, long a friend. After service in the Royal Air Force, 1941–6, O’Connor continued his teaching career, begun at Birmingham College of Art, 1937, then Bristol College of Art, 1938–41, by becoming principal of Colchester School of Art, 1948–64. Visiting lectureships included St Martin’s School of Art, 1964–74. O’Connor’s own written and illustrated books included Canals, Barges and People, 1950; Landscape Painting, 1967; The Technique of Wood Engraving, 1971; Introducing Relief Printing, 1973; and A View of Kilvert, 1981.
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His illustrated books included some for the Golden Cockerel Press and were notably about the countryside. Whittington Press issued The Wood Engravings of John O’Connor in 1989. O’Connor was a member of RWS and was a regular exhibitor at RA. Had many solo shows, including a series at Zwemmer Gallery, 1955–68; New Grafton Gallery from 1970; and retrospectives at Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow, and The John Russell Gallery, Ipswich, 1999, with a further exhibition of wood engravings at Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh, 2003. Abbott and Holder showed O’Connor’s 1950s watercolours of Essex and Suffolk in 2004, when the New Grafton Gallery gave him a joint exhibition with John Nash. There was a memorial exhibition at The John Russell Gallery, 2005–6. He wrote in 1989 that he retained “a search for timelessness in subject matter and in mood of painting with avoidance of material that dates or humanises the picture. Also, I seek unusual weather conditions.” Arts Council, Tate Gallery, British Museum and many other public collections hold examples. Lived latterly at Parton, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire. He died in Dumfries.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
