Lines, Leaves, and Life after Loss

This artist found new purpose amongst canvas, palettes, and paint.

Watercolor painting saved Andi Snethern’s life. The Springfield-based, award-winning watercolor artist didn’t pick up a brush until her sixties. Andi’s journey began in 2019, after retiring from a 26-year career teaching physical education and coaching volleyball and softball. About 14 years ago, she began experiencing severe lower back pain—something she attributes to a lifetime of staying active and playing sports.

“My body had taken a lot of abuse,” she says.

Eventually, she underwent lumbar fusion surgery. During the first procedure, the surgeon accidentally cut a nerve, leaving her with permanent nerve damage and the inability to lift her left leg, Andi says.

It felt like a prison sentence.

“I got really sad and depressed,” Andi says. “And after some time of just laying around in bed doing nothing, I thought, ‘You’ve got to find another purpose in your life.’ So the new purpose then became painting.”

Though she’d taken a few art classes in high school and had a natural knack for drawing, Andi set art aside when she chose to focus on teaching. Decades later, she gave it another shot.

“I went and bought some paints and paper and canvas and started painting,” she says. “It was very basic, very rudimentary. I laugh when I look back at some of the things I started with. I didn’t even have watercolor paper; I painted in a journal. I basically taught myself.”

Encouraged by a friend, she held her first exhibition at Vino Cellars in Springfield in 2019. It was the first of many.

These days, she draws inspiration from nature. Her style is realistic and highly detailed, often based on photographs.

“What the photo looks like is a lot like what my painting looks like,” she says. “I’m drawn toward things that are very detail-oriented. You’ll see all the veins of a leaf.”

Andi has completed over 55 commissions, including pet portraits and landscapes. She works slowly and methodically, sometimes drawing freehand, sometimes using a grid, depending on the size and complexity of the piece. For larger paintings, like her landscape piece featuring Glacier National Park, Andi mixes large batches of paint in advance to keep her palette consistent.

She even keeps a cheat sheet to track color formulas in case she needs to recreate a shade later.

Andi encourages people to try painting at any age, having started again at age 61.

“It’s never too late,” she says. “If you’re motivated and want to learn something new, I think it’s absolutely possible.”

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To find out about Andi’s art shows or inquire about commissions, call 417-773-9027 or visit Andi Snethern Watercolors on Facebook. See Andi’s work in two galleries: An Artist Collective in Springfield and Lucid TLC Gallery in Nixa.

All photos courtesy of Andi Snethern.

This article was originally printed in the October 2025 issue of Missouri Life.