John O’Connor was born in London into a family distinguished for three generations in the world of theatre and music.

He studied at Chelsea School of Art where he was awarded two drawing prizes and graduated with a first class honours degree in Fine Art.

This was followed by two years of postgraduate study at the Slade School where his tutors were Robyn Denny and Bernard Cohen.

While still at Chelsea, he collaborated with the psychiatrist R. D. Laing in organising a collective exhibition of his own and fellow students’ work at Kingsley Hall, London.

In 1974 came the publication of the suite of etchings In Nomine Domini which was exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery, London.

During the 1970’s he lectured on the History of Art in various Art Colleges including Goldsmiths and Chelsea School of Art, where he was lecturer in Perspective.

In the 1980’s O’Connor worked as a consultant to the film directors Neil Jordan, Julian Temple and Stephen Frears and travelled extensively in Italy, Yugoslavia, Southern Africa, Spain and Portugal, painting lanscapes.

He has exhibited in London at the Marlborough Gallery, Clarges Gallery, the Christopher Drake Gallery, the Oxford Gallery, the Royal Geographical Society and the Leighton House Museum, and in Lisbon at the Grémio Literário, the British Council, Galeria Escada Quatro, Galeria Matriz and also in Sintra, Oporto, Régua and Quinta do Lago, Algarve.

He has participated in group shows in London at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Academy, and in Lisbon at the Galeria Janelas Verdes and the Centro Cultural de Belém.

Various private houses in England and Portugal have his murals and portraits besides the Stratford Motor Museum, the Royal Observatory at Kew and the Clothworkers’ Hall in London.

His work is represented in various public and private collections, in Portugal and in England, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Barclays Bank, Selecções do Reader’s Digest, Grupo Pestana, Hotel da Lapa, Museu da Cidade in Lisbon, Câmara Municipal de Sintra, as well as in the private collection of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.

O’Connor has published two books of watercolours and drawings accompanied by texts from Portuguese authors selected by Maria do Carmo Paço d’Arcos: Retrato do Douro – Portrait of the Douro in 2001 and Retrato de Lisboa – Portrait of Lisbon in 2004.

In 2004 he painted a portrait of Pope John Paul II, authorised by the Vatican.