Obediah Hunter Paints St. Augustine One Day At A Time

On any given day in downtown St. Augustine, Obediah “Obie” Hunter can often be found at an easel, painting as pedestrians pass and the light moves across old buildings, courtyards and side streets. Visitors stop to watch. Locals recognize him. Some have seen him work from the same corner dozens of times before deciding to bring home a painting of their own.

That familiar presence has made Hunter something of an unofficial resident plein air artist for St. Augustine. His work captures the city’s architecture and atmosphere, though not always in a literal way. Some canvases are carefully structured around historic facades; others are loose, colorful and expressive, shaped as much by feeling as by place.

“Some people like the more expressive stuff, and some people like the more architectural,” Hunter says. “It just depends on my mood.”

Hunter studied at Old Lyme Academy in Connecticut before transferring to Tulane University in New Orleans, where his grandfather was a professor. He began painting outdoors in the French Quarter, setting the foundation for a career that would take him traveling, painting and teaching for years. He has taught plein air painting in southern France and Sonoma, California, among other places.

St. Augustine appealed to him for the same qualities he found compelling abroad: its historic streets, its sense of age and, especially, its light.

“A lot of it, believe it or not, is the light,” he says, referring to the *lumière* artists discuss in France.

For a plein air painter, light is both subject and deadline. Shadows shift, colors change and a scene can look entirely different in the span of an afternoon. Hunter works within that movement, making quick decisions and allowing the paintings to retain the energy of the moment.

“It’s a day of your life,” he says. “You engrain those memories: the smells, the people you meet, and you link that up to the painting.”

He does not keep a conventional studio. The streets serve that purpose. Painting outdoors offers a break from the distractions of home and a kind of solitude, even in a busy place. Hunter describes the process as deeply personal, a way to quiet the mind and focus entirely on what is in front of him.

“Painting is very spiritual,” he says. “It’s almost as close as you can get to a church, where you’re out there.”

Over the years, Hunter has built a large photographic catalog of his St. Augustine work, documenting hundreds of paintings and many of the city’s most recognizable scenes. He hopes to use that archive for books, tutorials and teaching projects, giving other artists a glimpse into his relaxed, intuitive approach.

He also values the accessibility of painting on the street, where art is encountered naturally rather than behind a gallery door. A passerby might stop for a conversation, watch a scene emerge on canvas or find a small piece of St. Augustine to take home.

For Hunter, every painting is tied to a specific time and place. The city provides the subject, but the finished work holds something more fleeting: a change in light, a conversation with a stranger and one ordinary day made memorable through paint.