Billyo O'Donnell

Billyo is a Missourian - born and raised in a family of nine children approximately 70 miles west of St. Louis near the Missouri River - in Warren County.  The family farm was surrounded by two landowners with over 14,000 acres.  Consequently,  his boyhood was spent living a "Huck Finn" kind of life roaming the forests and streams, fishing, hunting, and creating art.

His artwork as a child and young man has led to many adventures in his current life such as taking him on a cruise up the Hudson River on the Forbes family yacht and to Cumberland Island to stay in the family owned mansion, which gave him an opportunity to paint the island. He has also had the honor of painting the St Louis Symphony Orchestra during a full dress rehearsal, the Roswell Symphony Orchestra in New Mexico, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Billyo is recognized as one of America's leading landscape painters by several prestigious plein air invitationals, and was included in a traveling exhibit and book, "Sea To Shining Sea," curated by the Haggin Museum in Stockton, CA and comprised of 50 of America's top landscape painters.

But, he takes the greatest pride in having been recently honored at the Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City for an unveiling of a selection of his 115 paintings in the book, "Painting Missouri,"  authored by Karen Glines - depicting the 114 counties in Missouri and the city of St. Louis which is currently on display at the downtown library in Kansas City.