Patrick O’Brien is an award-winning artist whose striking paintings depict the classic age of fighting sail. An illustrator and painter since the 1980‘s, O’Brien entered the marine art field in 2003. His first entry to the prestigious Mystic International Marine Art Exhibition won an Award of Excellence. In 2010 he won Mystic’s Museum Purchase Award, which means that Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut bought his painting for its permanent collection. In 2012, The National Maritime Historical Society awarded O’Brien with their Distinguished Service Award at a gala dinner in Washington DC.

O’Brien has had one-man-shows of his artwork in New York City, Annapolis, MD and Portsmouth VA. In 2010 the U.S. Naval Academy Museum mounted a retrospective exhibition entitled 'The Maritime Art of Patrick O’Brien' featuring twenty-eight paintings by the artist.

O’Brien’s paintings have been featured several times on the cover of Naval History magazine, published by the U.S. Naval Institute, and several times on the cover of Sea History magazine, published by the National Maritime Historical Society.