"Much of John O'Shea's early life remains unknown or is speculative at best. Fortunately, however, his years on the Monterey Peninsula are well documented. He was bor, resumably in 1876, in Ballintaylor in the south of Ireland. John left home at fourteen and may have studied elements of drawing, designing and painting at schools in Dublin and Cark, befor departing for America between 1890 and 1897. He was in his mid-teens or early twenties when he studied at the Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn, New York for two years with the portraitist Barnard Whittaker. O'Shea also studied with the anatomy teacher, George B. Bridgman. During one summer he spent time at the studio of Charles Harry Eaton in Leonia, New Jersey. Nineteen-thirteen was a significant year for the thirty-seven year old artist. It was the year of the pivotal Armory Show in New York; he was probably living in Sherwood Studios, a well-known artist' residence. He most-likely also met his future wife then, the wealthy recently-widowed Mary Donally Crawford Shaughnessyof Terre Haute, Indiana. He moved that same year to Pasadena, California, most-likely because Mary was spending much time with her widowed mother who had moved there. John O'Shea also began his artistic career in 1913, soon after arriving in Pasadena. There is evidence that he previously painted in Maine before leaving the East coast for California. In Pasadena there appeared the earliest known critique of his work that consisted of "eighteen or twenty of his impressionistic pictures of Southern California." They were extolled-also by Antony Anderson-as "wonderfully beautiful interpretations of our landscape, full of vibrating light and color." By 1916, Mary & John were keeping house in Laguna Beach, in her words, "long before that place was discovered." A number of extant watercolors capture the brilliance of land, sea and skies at Laguna. Between 1916 and 1917 John O'Shea began to move permanently to Carmel. John became an active member of the art and literary communities. John O'Shea joined the Carmel Art Association in the early 1930's. Source: John O'Shea & Friends published by Carmel Art Association