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Hernando Today

Professional Artist Gets Stable Mural Job

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: July 12, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Ellen Snyder will soon be in a very familiar place: up against the wall, paintbrush in hand.

And the 61-year-old professional artist will be painting one of her favorite subjects on the side of an antique store in downtown Brooksville.

"Horses are my thing," Snyder said Friday.

The Brooksville Mural Society has selected Snyder to paint a livery stable scene on the side of the Antique Sampler Mall, at the corner of Main and Liberty streets. The society's board approved Snyder's rendering on Wednesday.

The painting shows a scene common in Brooksville before the advent of the automobile: a man holds the reins of two horses pulling a wagon loaded down with boxes from Bell's Fruit Company, a well-known fruit business based in the city.

In the background, a boy leads a white horse out of a livery stable to a nearby carriage.

Snyder said she considers herself a wildlife artist who leans toward photorealism – that is, paintings that could almost be a photograph. She'll do the same for this piece to create the illusion of three dimensions on the flat wall.

"I want it so little kids will want to go up and pet the horses," Snyder said.

Snyder is actually the second artist hired to do the mural. The society had commissioned Hudson artist L.D. Hunter for the job and paid him the first of three installments. Hunter, who was chosen out of 10 artists, got started but the mural sat for months as Hunter tended to "personal issues," said Chairwoman Mary Alice Queiros.

Finally, the society agreed he wouldn't be able to meet the terms of the contract and asked Snyder to do it instead.

It worked out for the best, though, Queiros said. Snyder's experience shows.

"When I saw the picture…what crisp lines," Queiros said. "That's exactly what I've been saying I've wanted on that wall."

The mural will feature the face of a real Brooksvillian of the past.

Mable Sims of Twin Lakes has provided a photo of her great uncle, Lem St. Clair, and his face will be used for the wagon driver.

St. Clair was one of five St. Clair brothers who lived in Twin Lakes in the late 1800s. Another was Arthur St. Clair, a former slave who rose to prominence and served in a host of public roles, including sheriff and head of a state militia. He was selected by the city council as the Great Brooksvillian for 2007.

Lem St. Clair also was a former slave who had only one arm but who was still good-natured, Sims said. How he lost the arm isn't clear. One story says it was an accident with a saw. Another attributes it to a cruel slaveowner.

"It's such an honor for a family member to be preserved this way," Sims said.

Snyder is a Pennsylvania native who grew up on a farm and got her start sketching horses in pastures. She graduated from the Pittsburgh Art Institute and since then has made her living as an artist specializing in wildlife. Her pieces feature animals ranging from deer to manatees.

She moved to Hernando County in 1980 and since then has been commissioned for a host of murals here, from a river scene on the side of a hot tub to the town square panorama at Chocachatti Elementary School. Snyder did two backdrops for the Springstead High School theater – a pastoral vista and a view of New York's City Broadway signs.

The mural is the sixth commissioned by the society for a downtown building. The most visible and arguably well known is the Brooksville Raid, by Spring Hill artist Tony Caparello, on the side of Patricia's Boutique at Broad and Main streets.

Snyder hopes to start on the Liberty Street Mural as early as next week, though she admitted working in the summer on a south-facing wall without any shade will be a challenge.

"It's not going to be easy, but I'm going to do it," she said.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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