Paint Annapolis is on the way! Learn more about the juried artists and get yourself ready for this historic Plein air painting festival.
We’re excited to welcome Richard Russell Sneary from Kansas City, Missouri as a juried artist for Paint Annapolis 2023! Richard is a watercolorist who has been painting primarily en plein air since 2011. He is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, National Watercolor Society, Missouri Watercolor Society, Outdoor Painters Society, Kansas Watercikir Society, President Emeritus of The American Society of ArchitecturalIllustrators, and Artist Faculty at the 2016 Plein Air Convention and Expo in Tucson, Arizona, and Watercolor Live 2023.
Richard was an architect and architectural illustrator for around 40 years before starting to paint plein air, but he has been drawing since the age of 5! He says he began drawing things that supposedly looked like dogs and horses first, then cars and planes, and eventually he began drawing buildings and hasn’t stopped since!
His understanding of design, composition, freehand drawing, perspective, the built, the natural environment, and other aspects of his professional growth all seem to stem from his Architectural background. Richard’s interest in plein air painting began at the American Society of Architectural Illustrators’ conference in the late nineties. He watched the members spend their Saturdays at their annual conventions drawing or painting in some great places like Yellowstone, Boston, or San Francisco. Richard began to join them, although only once or twice a year it definitely piqued his interest in plein air!
After his first introduction to en plein air painting, he began taking workshops and learning more about watercolor. He traveled while taking these workshops, Richard went along the coast of Maine with Carlton Plumber, the Flordia keys with Jeanne Dobie, Key West, and Catalina Island with Charles Reid, Canada with Alvaro Castagnet, and at the Madeline Island School for Art on Lake Superior with Joseph Zubukvic and Herman Pekel. Both the artists and locations now had Richard hooked!
Richard has participated in more than 90 plein air events all over the country and has won almost as many awards! Some of his more recent awards include; Lighthouse Art Center Grand Prize; En Plein Air Texas 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, & 2021 Best Architectural Award 2014, Award of Distinction 2018, Award of Distinction Mini Pearl 2019, Texas Precious Water Award 2020, Best Body Of Work 2021; Shadows-on-the-Teche 2018, 2019, & 2022, 2nd Place 2018, Honorable Mention 2019, Honorable Mention 2022; Cape Ann Plein Air 2016, 2017, 2018, & 2019…. and many, many more!
Learn more about Richard on his website here. Or on his Instagram here.
Maryland Federation of Art Blog 