Artist Biography & Facts

Joseph Orr

Joseph Charles Orr  b. 1949
(name variations:  Joseph Orr, Joseph C. Orr)

BORN in Tokyo, Japan, Oct 31,1949, Joseph lived his first years in an orphanage sponsored by American Armed Forces. He was adopted April,1954 and came to the US at age 5 where he became an American citizen. As the Orr’s traveled for the US military Joseph enjoyed a childhood rich in experiences from Germany and back to California where he attended High School and started College.

Following his parents to Missouri In 1971 he took a job with Hallmark Cards as machine operator in the cardboard fold dept. It sparked an interest in art, so after a few months he sought out some of the Hallmark artists at their work for private lessons. He learned basic drawing and watercolor from Anthony Allison and, “Probably before I was ready”, he admits, Joseph was entering local art shows and even winning prizes. At that time Joseph also enrolled for art instruction under John Coleman at Longview Community College. He spent one semester there.

By the end of 1972 Joseph had quit his day job to become a full time painter, joining an art show tour group called Word Of Art, which was a new concept: culture meets promotion. Booking weekly art exhibits in the new indoor shopping malls across America, The idea transformed part of the art world by bringing art to the masses.

For Joe and many other artists in the early 1970’s, it created the chance to paint full time and sell their work to an otherwise unobtainable audience. During this time of continuous self study and painting Joseph transitioned from watercolor to the newer acrylic painting medium.
Believing that acrylic, as a fine art painting medium, can be as viable as oil, Orr has always promoted it as the modern medium that it is.

In 1990 Joseph, along with his wife, Rita and two other artists, founded the National Oil & Acrylic Painter’s Society. The Orr’s brainchild, they were aided in founding NOAPS organization by local art patrons, Wm & Martha Mitchell and fellow artists Pete Peterson and Dennis T. Yates.

While traveling with the World of Art Tour Joseph had met Rita Mathews, an aspiring artist, in Columbia, MO. They were married in June 1974 and stayed in Missouri, traveling and exhibiting their art together. Orr had a brief encounter with printmaking in 1977. He took private instruction in stone lithography and copper plate etching from Frank Stack, professor of art at the Univ of MO, Columbia, but painting remained his principal devotion.

By 1999 Joseph had become proficient enough to have obtained Gallery representation with several Fine Art Galleries across the US.

Joseph Orr currently resides in Osage Beach, Missouri, but travels to paint and visit his gallery representatives and Exhibit Openings.

PHILOSOPHY:

For me the idea is that painting should follow some form of illustration and truth telling. Basically, the premise of my painting philosophy, is to build layers of narrative into my paintings. A place or landscape scene is never defined satisfactorily without it’s relationship to color and composition. It is important to balance fact with imagination.

“ART REFLECTS THE SOUL OF SOCIETY.  A JUDGMENT CAN BE MADE FOR THE ATTITUDE OR CONDITION OF SOCIETY BY INSPECTING THE POPULAR ‘IDEAS’ OF ART OR, IN SOME INSTANCES, THE LACK OF ART.” (JOSEPH C. ORR)

NOTED SOLO EXHIBITS :

*BIRGER SANDZEN MEMORIAL, LINDSBORG, KS;
*HARWELL ART MUSEUM, POPLAR BLUFF, MO;
*ASHBY-HODGE GALLERY OF AMERICAN FINE ART, FAYETTE, MO;
*NORFOLK ART CENTER, NORFOLK, NE;
*KODNER GALLERIES, ST. LOUIS, MO;
*MORRIS & WHITESIDE GALLERIES, HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC

NOTED ART ASSOCIATION EXHIBITS:

*NOAPS SMALL WORKS, NASHVILLE, TN, 2018
*ARTS FOR THE PARKS, TOP “100”, JACKSON, WY  2006, 03, 02, 1994, 93, 90;
*GILCREASE MUSEUM MINIATURE EXHIBITS, TULSA, OK;  2004 - 1994
*ALBUQUERQUE, NM MUSEUM OF ART, MINIATURES EXHIBIT: - 1998, 1994
*OIL PAINTERS OF AMERICA EXHIBITS:  1997, 1993
*NOAPS ANNUAL EXHIBITS: 1996, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991
*AKRON SOCIETY OF ARTISTS, AKRON, OH;  1996
*KNICKERBOCKER ARTISTS EXHIBITS , NYC: VARIOUS YRS
*SALMAGUNDI CLUB EXHIBITS, NYC  (AWARD WINNER-1991)

MEMBERSHIPS & LISTINGS:

*    NATIONAL OIL AND ACRYLIC PAINTER’S SOCIETY (CO-FOUNDER IN 1990)
*    AMERICAN IMPRESSIONIST SOCIETY
*    WHO’S WHO IN AMERICAN ART

MUSEUMS COLLECTIONS:

*  LAGUNA ART MUSEUM - LAGUNA BEACH, CA
*  ASHBY-HODGE GALLERY OF AMERICAN FINE ART - FAYETTE, MO
*    ELLA CAROTHERS DUNNEGAN MUSEUM/GALLERY OF ART - BOLIVAR, MO
*    STATE OF MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTION -COLUMBIA, MO

BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS:

1.  * ILLUSTRATION & AUTHORED CHAPTER: KEYS TO PAINTING TREES & FOLIAGE, EDITED BY RACHEL RUBIN WOLF, NORTH LIGHT BOOKS, 2001:  (8 PAGES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS)
2.  * ILLUSTRATION & COMMENTARY:  ART FROM THE PARKS, BY RACHEL RUBEN WOLF, NORTHLIGHT BOOKS     2000
3.  * ILLUSTRATION: NORTHLIGHT ARTISTS GUIDE TO MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES, BY PHIL METZGER:  NORTHLIGHT BOOKS 1996 (2+ PAGES OF COMMENTARY & ILLUSTRATIONS)
4.  * ILLUSTRATION & CHAPTER: FIRST STEPS SERIES: PAINTING ACRYLICS BY VICKI LORD:  NORTH LIGHT BOOKS, 1996 (6 PAGES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS)
7.  *ILLUSTRATION & CHAPTER: ACRYLIC PAINTING TECHNIQUES, BY E.E. KILLEEN: NORTHLIGHT BOOKS 1995 (5+ PAGES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS)

Joseph Orr was born in Japan.  Half American and half Japanese, he spent his first four years in an orphanage until he was adopted by an American service couple and brought to the United States.  As a service family, the Orr's moved regularly around the country, and it is probably during his childhood when Joseph Orr discovered his love for travel. To this day he and his wife, Rita enjoy travelling and seeing the United States.

In the late 1960s, Orr took a job with Hallmark cards operating machinery.  It was there that he met Tony Allison, a Hallmark artist, who mentored Orr.  Encouraged by Allison, Orr took art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute and eventually worked for Hallmark for four years.

Restless to pursue his own creativity, Orr left Hallmark and set out on his own.  In 1990 he had a painting accepted into the Art for the Parks competition and gallery representation soon followed.

Source:
Art of the West, September 2003

Artist Joseph Orr paints the landscape of America in places he likes to visit.  Working primarily from sketches made on location, he creates finished paintings that capture the essence and tranquility of the scene.  Using light and shadow to convey mood and flavor of an ethereal moment, his paintings are works of art centered on scenes of solitude, which the viewer may happen upon reguraly or glimpse momentarily in passing.  "The place doesn't have to be profound or monumentally significant," he says, "it just has to express something in me that another person can understand and appreciate."

Orr's landscapes have garnered him many awards; therefore, Joseph is recognized as a viable component of the contemporary art world.  Four times, as recently as 2003, his paintings have been included among the Arts for the Parks "Top 100" competition in Jackson, Wyoming. In 1993, his entry won the historical Art Award.

The magazines Workshop, Art of the West, and Southwest Art have featured his work, and Joseph has contributed chapters or instructional material to several Northlight books.

Joseph Orr's paintings also illustrate the pages of Art From the Parks by Rachel R. Wolfe, and A Town on Two Rivers by Victoria Hubbell.

Among permanent collections of his works are: the NCAA, Indianapolis, Indiana; The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City; and Kansas City Southern Railway, Kansas City, Missouri.

Joseph Orr paints the landscape of America, not only to document these quiet places but to chronicle the way we see America's rural space at this point in history.  As an artist, Joseph has established his work as an entity in the art world through his inclusion both in significant exhibits and in galleries of note.

Exhibition venues include: Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic; Knickerbocker Artists; Salmagundi Club annuals in New York City; Albuquerque (NM) Museum; the Gilcrease in Tulsa, OK; the Old West Museum, Cheyenne, WY; and the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, WY.

Three times Joe's paintings have been among The Arts For The Parks 'Top 100' Competition in Jackson, WY, and in 1993 his paintings of the battlefield at Vicksburg, MS won the Historical Art Award.

Orr is listed in Who's Who in American Art.  He works from his studio in Osage Beach, Missouri.


Sources include: contact with the artist