Billyo O'Donnell Changed Landscape Painting in Missouri

Missouri native landscape artist Billyo O’Donnell has been honored as top individual artist in the 2012 Missouri Arts awards, presented by the Missouri Arts Council. 

It's the latest in a string of other prestigious awards O'Donnell has received for his work from many esteemed organizations. He has also exhibited his work in museums across the country.

A Well-Deserved Honor

“To be recognized for what I’ve done is a very humbling thing for me," O’Donnell told Patch. "I’m thrilled to death.”

executive director Laura Helling said the recognition reflects O'Donnell's commitment to the local art community.

“He has been an enthusiastic supporter of the arts throughout the St. Louis community,” she said in a news release.

Helling said O’Donnell, a long-time Foundry Art Centre board member, has been an integral part of the Foundry Art Centre since it was established in 2004.

Changing Perceptions about Landscapes

“Years ago, when I first started doing landscapes, they were never shown in galleries,” O’Donnell said. “I’d approach a gallery and when they heard I was a landscape artist, they’d say ‘no thanks.’”

He said he loved landscape painting so much that he would work a day job as an illustrator, then come home and paint landscapes on weekends and evenings.

He said that his big break came when some fellow artists saw his work and suggested he apply to be part of an exclusive California Art Club event. He was accepted and has been invited back every year. Soon after that event, he was approached by one of the premier galleries in California.

“I was dumbfounded,” he said. "They said they had never seen my work, and they wanted to know who I was and what galleries I was showing in.”

O’Donnell said that when he told him he wasn’t in any galleries, they were shocked. The experience compelled him to try to change the whole perception of landscape painting in the Midwest. And that, he did.

A Leap of Faith Leads to an Inspired Career

O’Donnell said that he created the Forest Park Paint-Out in 1996 with the St. Louis Artists Guild, and that it had been a big success with more than 80 artists showing up to paint Forest Park.

In 2000, O’Donnell founded Artists on the Katy Trail, a month-long event during which artists painted river towns across the state of Missouri.

He said that some of the towns they visited allowed them to stay in historic buildings when they found out the project had no funding. That’s when O’Donnell said that a lot of “real community things” started to happen, and before he knew it, “en plein air” painting had taken hold in the Missouri art community. "En plein air" is a French expression meaning "in the open air."

“Then I just kind of got picked up by a gallery, and it changed my whole life,” he said. “They did national ads about me and everything.”

An Accomplished Artist

O’Donnell has painted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra during a full dress rehearsal, among other world-famous orchestras, and his book, Painting Missouri: The Counties en Plein Air, won the Governor’s Humanities Award in 2009. O’Donnell said that project took seven years to complete because he painted in every county in the state. 

“In Missouri, I have found all that an artist needs, and beyond this, I have found an even deeper connection to place," O’Donnell told the University of Missouri Press in 2008.  

His partner in creation, Karen Glines, did interviews in every county before writing the essays that accompany O’Donnell’s artwork in the book. She also provided historical information on each county, based on her research with several Missouri historical associations.

He added that the Kansas City Public Library recently featured the paintings. He said the library had the best turnout it had ever had for an art exhibit.

“People even chartered buses from Wichita,” he said. “I heard the same thing from museums in Hannibal, Poplar Bluff and Columbia, that it was the highest turnout they had ever had.”

O'Donnell, who graduated from the College of Arts & Letters at Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) in 1980, was raised in Warren County on a family farm. He said he spent his childhood there “living a ‘Huck Finn’ kind of life, roaming the forests and streams, fishing, hunting and creating art.”

“It was really more of a hobby farm,” he said. “My dad had a regular job, but we had 10 cows and 67 acres.”

His Greatest Honor

He said one of his greatest honors was when a few of the 115 of his paintings that were used in his book were unveiled at the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City. Melanie Blunt initiated the special exhibit, and even current governor Jay Nixon came to Springfield to see it.

He said he was impressed and honored when Gov. Nixon spent more than an hour with him at the event.

“We walked around to every painting and talked about each one in the exhibit,” O’Donnell said. “He knew so much about things that were made years ago in each of these counties, unique things, laws—he was just a wealth of information.”

O'Donnell said he also had a surprise visit with then-governer Matt Blunt at the Governor's Mansion when the paintings were unveiled.

As for his personal future, O’Donnell said he’s looking for new things to do in the Midwest, but he has no plans to leave.

“I could have packed up and moved a long time ago, but this is home,” he said. “I’ve got my canoe and I think I’ll canoe down the river and do a little painting.”

O’Donnell will officially receive the award at Capitol Rotunda in Jefferson City on Feb. 8.

Learn more about Billyo O'Donnell at his website.