William O'Shea was born in Sydney in 1934, and is generally regarded as one of Australia's best selling painters. ... He began painting full time in 1974 after having worked in poster design, silk-screen printing, and as a part-time lecturer at the Sydney School of Graphic Arts.
His works are distinctly ‘O’Shea’ in style, which dramatically, and beautifully typify the Australian scene – the woolsheds, mining and farming scenes, shacks, timber mills, homesteads, and pubs of Australia.
Bill O’Shea is typically Australian (4th generation) and is contrary to the accepted ‘artist image’. He began painting full time in 1974 after having worked in poster design, silk-screen printing, and as a part-time lecturer at the Sydney School of Graphic Arts. He moved closer to the area of his favourite subjects where he established the Bakers Swamp Gallery near Wellington, NSW in 1981, where he has his studio.
His paintings have found their way into numerous overseas collections. He is a prize winning artist, and has had many one-man exhibitions in Eastern Australia. He is extremely active in the promotion of of exhibitions for charitable purposes, and takes pride in his ability to help preserve part of Australia’s heritage on canvas.
In 2001, O'Shea was awarded a fellowship by the Australian Institute of History and Arts in recognition of his continued contribution to the field of Traditional Art, thus joining other prominent Australians entitled to place the letters F.A.I.H.A. after their names.
