National award-winning artist Mary Rose O’Connell showcases Seashores and Gardens in the Wayside Visitors Center at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA from September 12–November 1, 2026.
About the Art
Mary Rose O’Connell is best known for her dynamic oil paintings of the New England coast. Additional genres are her sensitive portraits, still life, and landscape paintings. She paints in her Western Avenue studio and does plein-air in a representational style. Classically trained in the Boston School Tradition, her work shows a strong grounding in composition and design combined with the color and light of the 19th-century Impressionists.
About the Artist
Besides a national award-winning artist, Mary Rose is a past recipient of the Charles Family Foundation, Cape Ann Museum, and Copley Society of Art Fellowship. She is a juried artist member of the Copley Society of Art, the Rockport Art Association, and the North Shore Arts Association. Mary Rose has exhibited with the Oil Painters of America, the American Impressionists Society, the Allied Artists of America, and the Guild of Boston Artists.
Mary Rose teaches oil painting, acrylic, gauche, and drawing mediums; and she conducts workshops in Tuscany, France. She is currently serving as the president of the Board of Trustees at the North Shore Arts Association in Gloucester, MA.
Her favorite Trustees properties include Fruitlands Museum and Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens, to which she has returned repeatedly to paint the beautiful house and flower gardens. Mary Rose’s first-ever plein-air experience was from the parking lot at the Fruitlands looking down the road at the iconic view across the Nashoba Valley.
Mary Rose believes that teaching students and friends plein-air painting on trips in America and Europe has helped her grow as an artist. That painting keeps you in the moment and makes you fully engaged in observing, interpreting, designing, and pushing to improve with each new work.
Besides painting, Mary Rose’s greatest joy is spending time with her family.
More Info on Her CV
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