Don O'Neill Watercolor

My grandfather traveled all over the world and in some instances spent a great deal of time looking for painting destinations,  teaching classes and participating in collaborations with his mentors.  One of my life's missions is to share his paintings with the world and tell the story behind them.   Over the last decade of his career he produced several paintings featuring scenes of the American Southwest.   Today I am going to share one of our favorites from New Mexico.  This is Adobe Steps When I first saw this painting I was convinced it was either Santa Fe or Taos as both places are full of this beautiful traditional adobe architecture.  However upon further research we learned Don conducted a painting workshop in the small community of La Luz, New Mexico where we think the source material for this scene would have originated.   This particular piece was featured as the cover on Don's final piece, a retrospective book "Don O'

This is going to be the start of a series where I take you on the adventure of my grandfather's artwork.  Don O'Neill, my grandfather painted over 3500 paintings throughout his career spanning from the 1970s to his passing in 2007.    I took over his business after his passing and I am proud to produce over 100 different giclee prints of his work.  Every few weeks I will share a different piece and tell the story, at least the story as far as I know it.   Every painting is in a story of itself and I hope to share what I know to you.   This first post is going to depict perhaps his most popular painting. This is Mission Inn Towers.   Don painted Riverside's Mission Inn numerous times over his career.  This painting however is perhaps his most famous.  Don painted this beautiful watercolor painting in the late 1980s.  This image of the Mission Inn as painted, had to be planned beginning with a high and very long distant view so as to place each dome in the positio