Eliot O’Hara, Biltmore Hotel Arches, watercolor, 14 1/2 by 21 1/2 inches.
In 1926 Elliot O’Hara sold a successful telephone dial manufacturing company and began a career as an artist. He was thirty-five years old and had no training in art. In 1928 O’Hara received a Guggenheim Traveling Scholarship, studying art in Paris, London, and the Soviet Union. Later, in collaboration with his wife, who edited the Greenwich Connecticut Press, he wrote six widely used books on the art and technique of watercolor. The first Making Watercolor Behave, was published in 1932 and the last A History of Watercolor, was published in England in 1950. An important American watercolorist, his painting exhibited in leading galleries in the United States, O’Hara was one of the first watercolorists elected to membership in the National Academy. He taught at the Norton School of Art in West Palm Beach from 1943 to 1950. In January 1950 O’Hara opened a studio in Coral Gables at 2738 Ponce de Leon Blvd., alternating his time between The Norton and Coral Gables. He also taught at the Coconut Grove Recreation Center. O’Hara lectured and taught watercoloring up and down the east coast of Florida.
He made numerous films for the Encyclopedia Britannica, receiving an Oscar from the motion picture industry for the best educational film of 1957. The Florida Federation of Art honored O’Hara in December 1959 with a Silver Tea, exhibiting his work, and showing his Oscar winning film. Many critics considered him one of the nation’s greatest watercolorist and teachers. O’Hara taught at Yale University, University of North Carolina, and the Philadelphia Museum School. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Art.
Membership: National Academy of Design; American Watercolor Society.
Exhibits: Ringling School of Art, Aqua-Chromatic Exhibit, February 1938, Florida Fisherfolk, sponsored by Grumbacher Galleries, New York; Sarasota Art Association, one man show, 1942; Society of The Four Arts, 4th Annual Members Exhibit, Palm Beach, March 1942, Jungle Garden, Cotton Silk Tree; Society of The Four Arts, 7th Annual Members Show, January 1945, watercolor, Florida Coast; Society of The Four Arts, April 1945; Society of The Four Arts, 8th Annual Members Exhibit, December 1945-January 1946, watercolor, Promontories, 1st prize, watercolor, Upland Farm in Autumn; Norton Gallery and School of Art, West Palm Beach, one man show, December 1945, in celebration of the schools 5th Anniversary; Society of The Four Arts, 9th Annual Members Exhibit, December 1946-January 1947, watercolors; Society of The Four Arts, 10th Annual Members Exhibit, December 1947-January 1948, watercolor, Coast Highway, Channing Hare Prize, best watercolor, Mending Nets; Society of The Four Arts, 11th Annual Members Exhibit, December 1948-January 1949, watercolor, Portrait of Mrs. Allison Foster; Society of The Four Arts, 12th Annual Members Exhibit, December 1949-January 1950, watercolor; Society of The Four Arts, 13th Annual Members Exhibit, December 1950-January 1951, watercolor; St. Augustine Art Association, January 1951, Bennett Hotel Award, best watercolor, St. Augustine; St. Augustine Art Association, Florida Power and Light Award, January 1953, Dark Mountain; St. Augustine Art Association, February 1953, Coral Beach, March 1953, prize, watercolor, Sea of Galilee; St. Augustine Art Association, January 1954, Alligator Farm Award, watercolor, From the Slave Market; Palette and Brush Gallery, Aviles Street, January 1954; SAAA, January 1955, 1st prize, watercolor, Crape Myrtle; Jacksonville Art Museum, February 1955, thirty watercolors; SAAA, February 1956, 1st prize, watercolor; St. Augustine, Brush and Palette Gallery, February 1956, one man show; SAAA, Exchange Bank of St. Augustine, February 1956, No Wind in the Moss; SAAA, January 1958, honorable mention, watercolor; SAAA, March 1958, 2nd award, watercolor, Sand Dunes; SAAA, January 1959, Milton Bacon 1st Award, watercolor, Gulls on St. Augustine Waterfront; SAAA, April 1960, 2nd award, watercolor.
Books: Making Watercolor Behave, 1932; Making the Brush Behave, 1935; Watercolor Fares Forth, 1938; Art Teacher’s Primer, 1939; Watercolor at Large, 1946; Portraits in the Making, 1948; Watercolor Portraiture, 1949.
