Behind every successful festival are the people who quietly make it happen. The Plein Air Easton Hall of Fame was created to honor those whose commitment, leadership, creativity, and support have helped the festival grow from an ambitious idea into a nationally recognized event. In this last of the series, we celebrate the 2026 inductees and the lasting impact each has had on the Plein Air Easton story.
If you had walked into Suzan Brice’s home, it wouldn’t have taken long to understand what mattered to her.
The paintings told the story.
There were large paintings and small paintings, marsh scenes and landscapes, works by artists she had followed for years. Nearly every wall held a reminder of Plein Air Easton, and if there happened to be an empty space somewhere, it usually wasn’t empty for long.
“She lived in a relatively small house, and she had small paintings all over it,” her son William Brice said. “If she had a little available space, she would put a small painting there.”
Those paintings are no longer all in one house. Many now hang in the homes of her three children, along with the gifts from Christmas mornings or purchases made during festival week. “Our homes are full,” her daughter Alyson Smith said. “Everywhere we look there’s a Plein Air painting with wonderful memories associated with it.”
Suzan Brice will be inducted into the Plein Air Easton Hall of Fame this year, nearly nine years after her death. Although she never picked up a paintbrush as one of the festival’s artists, she became one of its earliest supporters, opened her home to visiting painters, and helped create the welcoming atmosphere that many artists still remember.
Asked to describe their mother, her children all began in different places.
“She’s full of grace, and she’s smart, and she’s class, and she’s determined. She is probably the strongest person I have known,” Alyson said.
“I think about our mother as someone who was incredibly driven, intellectually curious, who explored the world, but also had the courage and the gumption to be a serial entrepreneur,” Preston Brice said. “Even late in life, she was following her passions and doing it all with a level of grace and thoughtfulness that I think a lot of people recognized.”
William remembers the quieter parts of her life.
“Mom was always very family oriented,” he said. “Always thinking about her kids. Throughout the year, she would see things she knew we would like, buy them for us as Christmas presents, whether it was February or July, and then put them in the closet. She drove us to school every day, picked us up, made sure we got breakfast, and if we were sick in the middle of the night, she was the one who took care of us. I have a lot of memories of Mom just always being there.”
Those qualities followed her throughout her life. Suzan grew up in Easton before attending Boston University, where she studied geology. After graduation, she taught in Switzerland, then moved to Houston, where she entered the oil industry during a time when very few women did.
“Being a woman in oil field services back then was almost unheard of,” Preston said. “She went on to have a fantastic career in the oil industry, ultimately having her own oil exploration business.”
She raised her family in Texas, but the Eastern Shore remained home, and when she returned more than two decades ago, it wasn’t long before she found her way back into the community she’d grown up in. She became involved with the Avalon Foundation almost immediately.
“She’s always been someone who was passionate about the arts,” Preston said. “As she got involved with the Avalon, she saw it as a way back into the community — a way to put down roots again.”
She volunteered to host painters staying in town for the festival, and before long, her home had become a place where they gathered after a day of painting. “She became very close with a lot of the artists who came every year,” Alyson said.
“They’d sit out on the back patio by the fire pit,” Preston said. “It became a little bit of a destination for a number of artists as they became closer over the years.”
During festival week, the gatherings took on a life of their own.
“When it was time for Plein Air, we’d talk almost every day,” Preston said. “She’d tell us, ‘We’ve got people coming over tonight,’ and then more people would come over after that. You never knew who all was coming, but it was a nice gathering place, and all were welcome.”
Artists such as Jill Carver, Hiu Lei Chong, Stephen Griffin, Leonard Mizerek and Tim Bell became regular visitors. Some stayed in her home. Others simply stopped by to take a break.
It almost became a tradition
Not every Plein Air tradition, though, happened while Suzan was alive to see it. She never saw the first Small Painting Sunday — the event was added to the festival the year she died and was dedicated in her memory.
What would that event have meant to her?
“She’d be very excited and happy about being associated with Small Painting Sunday. It would have warmed her heart for sure,” William said.
And when the family learned Suzan had been selected for the Plein Air Easton Hall of Fame, Preston said, “It was obviously a surprise and a huge honor. Plein Air was such a critical part of her life. It’s great that she’s being honored in this way.”
“It’s just such an amazing community,” Alyson said. “The fact that people still remember her as a friend.”
Nearly a decade later, her children continue adding paintings to the collections she started for them. They still recognize the names of artists who spent evenings around their mother’s fire pit. They still make time for Plein Air Easton every July.
And on the walls of their homes, the paintings she chose continue telling her story.
