Mary Rose O’Connell is best known for her dynamic oil paintings of the New England coast. Other genres she has mastered are her sensitive portrait, still life, and landscape paintings. She paints in her studio and outside 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 effects influenced by the 19^th century Impressionists.

Along with being a national award-winning artist, Mary Rose was a past recipient of the Charles Family Foundation, the Cape Ann Museum, and Copley Society of Art Fellowship. Mary Rose is a juried artist member of the Copley Society of Art, the North Shore Arts Association, and the Rockport Art Association and Museum. She has exhibited with the Oil Painters of America, the American Impressionists Society, the Allied Artists of America and the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club at Gramercy Park, N.Y.

Mary Rose instructs students in composition and design techniques using oil, acrylic, gouache, and drawing mediums. In addition to the technical aspects, the classes focus on color, value, and edge relationships within the paintings. She conducts workshops throughout the United States and Europe. Her series of online instructional videos are facilitated through Epiphany Fine Art. Mary Rose maintains a studio at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell owned by the Boston Council for the Arts. Prior to moving her studio to Western Ave, she spent six years as a studio artist at the Whistler House Museum of Art. Mary Rose is currently the President of the Board of Trustees at The North Shore Arts Association of Gloucester, MA.