Artist Byron Tracy Snyder works on a painting in his home studio.
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Head east of Holly Springs and soon you will find yourself in the bucolic farmland of Hickory Flat. Though the area boasts only a few hundred residents, scattered homes and open fields, you can find an award-winning painter tucked within its rough boundaries. His name is Byron Tracy Snyder and for the past several years he slowly has been making a name for himself in the world of portrait and plein air painting. While he’s received accolades and honors for his portraits from several national and international associations, it is his blending of the lines between classicism and impressionism which is gaining him a loyal following here and beyond. A Kentucky native, Tracy Snyder has studied with some of the most accomplished artists in Georgia, including fellow Hickory Flat resident Damon Carter. “Tracy’s work is somewhere between a classical painter and impressionism,” Carter said. “He gets a good likeness and he gets some brushwork in the painting, which I like. It has a refreshing spontaneity about it.” Much of Snyder’s recent development as an artist has been helped through his affiliation with the Portrait Society of Atlanta where he is a juried member. “One thing I love about artists is they bend over backward to help other artists,” he said. “There’s a great camaraderie. Those guys have helped me a great deal.” The father of four has worked in advertising since he completed his studies at the Art Institute of Atlanta in 1988. While at Adams Outdoor Advertising Snyder created billboard designs for almost six years before starting his work as an independent freelancer in advertising and graphic design. A handful of Snyder’s major clients included WSB Radio, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines, as well as a number of car manufacturers. “I went into advertising because I liked to paint and draw,” he remembered. “I ended up putting painting down and kind of forgot about it for a while. I got married, started a family, and just didn’t find the time for it.” But Snyder’s artistic focus returned to painting again in 2001 when he took on a personal project. “One of my buddies was a good artist and we were going to trade for a portrait of my son,” Snyder said. “But then I thought I would try it myself. I dug my old paints out of the closet and I enjoyed it. It rekindled my interest in painting.” That painting propelled his career as he added landscapes and still life paintings to his reportiore of portraits. Another of his passions is plein air painting, where he paints scenes on location, especially while on vacation. “I enjoy the process of going outside and painting on the spot,” Snyder explained. “You only have a couple of hours because the light is changing, the sun is moving across the sky, so you have to paint small and quickly. One of the hardest things is creating your composition there on the spot.” But it’s not just other artists who appreciate Snyder’s work. Woodstock resident Elaine Mabry met the artist through a local church group. She owns one of his paintings, titled “In from the Garden,” a still life depicting an arrangement of white roses in a white pitcher, with a blue hydrangea bloom lying on the table beside them. “It’s just gorgeous,” Mabry commented. “It was my favorite one. If I hadn’t bought it, someone else was about to buy it. It just really appealed to me. I thought it was really pretty and well done.”
About the artist Contact: 770.926.4477 www.byrontracysnyder.com
