By Leah Shapiro
As children, we often begin developing interests that soon become lifelong passions. For the first six years of her life, Sarah Sneeden lived with her parents and older sister on a farm in Sproul, Pennsylvania. She says it was a tiny town, adding with a laugh, “Population: six.” One of her earliest memories was the chore of gathering eggs. “My love of animals was cemented early on.”
When Sarah’s younger brother was born, the family moved to suburban Philadelphia. “I grew up a tomboy who wanted to play football and march in the band,” says Sarah. “Instead, I practiced the piano, played bassoon in the orchestra, and was a cheerleader.” Her father worked in the executive branch of a brickyard company and traveled around the world, scouting out places where the materials for bricks could be found. Later on, when Sarah was in her early 20s, she traveled with him to Mexico where he directed the construction of a plant. She says it was a wonderful trip because she could finally see what her dad did for a living.
Although her family was not artistic, Sarah’s brother and father loved taking photographs as a hobby. “My father was a photographer. That’s what he did when he was alone traveling. He liked to take pictures so he could tell us all about it.”
Sarah remembers doodling in class. Teachers would often call on her, assuming that she wasn’t paying attention. But she could always answer the question. Sarah was attracted to biology because she could draw the figures. When it came time to choose a college, Sarah wanted to go to art school, but her father preferred she didn’t. They compromised and she enrolled in Centenary College, an all-female school in Hackettstown, New Jersey. She took many interesting classes in her liberal arts education, including fencing, anatomy, principles of design, and art.
Sarah and Lil Moose (photo by Leah Shapiro)
Sarah recalls that the best part of college was a six-week trip she took with her choir. When asked if this was her “aha” moment as an artist, Sarah shrugs and says, “I don’t know when I had a moment, but this was probably a big one.” The group of 45 students spent a week in six different countries and saw many famous sites, including museums and chapels. Sarah was enamored with all the art. “I saw Michelangelo’s David and thought, How could anybody take a hunk of rock and make it a person?…I’d always liked art, but here I realized that it lasted. People painted these centuries ago and here we are looking at them.” With a smile, Sarah says that when they were in Paris on the last night of the trip, she was planning ways to run away and not have to return to school.
After college, Sarah returned to her parents’ house in suburban Philadelphia and underwent a back operation, leaving her in a body cast for three-and-a-half months. As you can imagine, laying on her back for that long of a period made her even more thankful for life beyond the hospital bed.
Following the yearlong recovery from the operation—of which much time was spent painting—22-year-old Sarah moved to Redington Shores, Florida. It was there that she bought her first set of oil paint and took her first fine art class from Roy Nichols. “I saw him do a portrait and said, I’ve got to do that.” Today, she primarily uses watercolors and pastels for sketching, and oils for her finished pieces. “Oil paint is my favorite because it is versatile and permanent.”
After a year in Florida, Sarah moved to Phoenix, Arizona, for a year. There she learned to play tennis, swam every day, took out stacks of books from the library, and painted. During our visit, Sarah pulled out a book of desert sketches and says that Phoenix was one of her most favorite places to live.
During a year stint in Louisville, Kentucky, Sarah worked in a department store and used pen-and-ink to sketch advertisements for the children’s section. In 1967, she moved to Hendersonville and drew ads for Ruth of Carolina, a manufacturer of girls clothing.
With a home base in Hendersonville, Sarah was hired Sarah and Lil Moose by universities to paint portraits of students. She chose acrylics for these projects because they dried quickly. Sarah met Clifton in Hendersonville and the couple was married in 1974. The anatomy classes Sarah took in college turned out to be quite helpful in her artistic pursuits. “The scenery changed every place I went. That’s why I started painting people, because people are the same everywhere…The anatomy is the same everywhere you go.” From young girls eating ice cream or a couple sitting with their cat and dog, Sarah’s portraits are vivid and realistic. “I start with big brushes and a thin wash, adding layers of pigment both with brushes and palette knifes, using copious amounts of paint.”
It’s been 45 years since Sarah became a full-time artist. “There are only so many hours in the day, and I’d rather paint than do anything else.” Sarah is also an avid reader and finds books with lots of images to be a wonderful escape from the everyday. While she prefers to paint plein air (“I have always been a nature lover, and much prefer to be outdoors”), it isn’t always realistic with ever-changing weather conditions. Today, she and Clifton live in Brevard with two cats, a pup named Lil Moose, a couple of rabbits, 25 canaries, and a parrot.
“When I’m stuck inside, I hear birdsong, so I can pretend I’m outside.”
With mud between her toes and a paintbrush in her hand, Sarah is reminded that nature is the ultimate artist. Her favorite places to work are near the waterfalls at DuPont State Forest, beside old barns, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, or anywhere there are flowers. At the welcome center at DuPont, you’ll find Sarah’s portrait of visionary Aleen Steinberg.
This month, Sarah will give a demonstration at Twigs & Leaves Gallery during Art After Dark on Friday, July 1, from 6–9 p.m. Other upcoming shows include the Cashiers Plein Air Festival, July 12–16, and an art show at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Brevard, July 22–23. She is also an associate member of Oil Painters of America.
For more of Sarah Sneeden’s work (Paintings by Sarah), visit Twigs & Leaves Gallery in Waynesville, or her page at twigsandleaves.com. She can be reached at 828.885.2740. Visits to Sarah’s studio (13 Greenwood Lane in Cedar Mountain, near Brevard) are available by appointment.
