O'Keeffe studied at the Dunedin School of Art c.1881-86 and later at the Académie Julian[1] in Paris in 1894–1895.
The demands of providing for his wife and six children meant O'Keeffe could not always afford to work as a full-time artist.
This experience is commemorated in his best known painting The Defence Minister's Telegram (1921, Dunedin Public Art Gallery), which shows an elderly man receiving news of his son's death.
O'Keeffe's finest paintings date from the 1920s and 1930s, however, most critical attention has concentrated on works painted in the first decade of the 20th century, notably Roses and Arum Lilies of 1906, now in the Auckland Art Gallery, and The Model at Rest of the same year, in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
His range of subject matter encompassed genre scenes, portraiture, landscapes (especially seascapes) and still life.