Andrei Kushnir  Andrei Kushnir (born August 30, 1947, Regensburg, Germany) is an American fine art painter. He is known for his landscapes, city views, and seascapes, but also has created genre, portraits and still life works. He is a resident of Maryland, with a studio in Washington, D.C.. Andrei Kushnir was born in Regensburg, Germany, the son of Ukrainian parents who immigrated to the United States to escape Soviet communism. He began painting in oils in 1980 and quickly progressed to painting landscapes on site. While essentially self-taught, Kushnir studied with artists Michael Francis  and Michele Martin Taylor. He developed his own naturalistic realist style, and has worked primarily outdoors, in every season and type of weather. In the 1980s, his works were shown in Washington, D.C. area exhibits. In the 1990s, Kushnir began showing his work nationally. He was elected a Signature Member of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, a member of the Salmagundi Club, NYC, the Washington Society of Landscape Painters, and was elected a juried Official U.S. Coast Guard Artist. Andrei Kushnir's works were shown in competitive exhibitions throughout the United States. During the early 21st century, Andrei Kushnir established and operated, with artist Michele Martin Taylor, art galleries in Manhattan, New York, and Ellicott City, Maryland, where they exhibited their own works and works of other mid-career American artists. In 2006, Andrei Kushnir opened a studio and gallery in Washington, D.C., where he exhibited his works and those of other American artists with whom he has personally painted. The landscape painter Alexangel Estevez  "studied with Andrei Kushnir. Andrei Kushnir promoted the scenic beauties of the Potomac River throughout his career as an artist. He was the founder of the Potomac River School artists, organizing exhibits for the group at the Sandy Spring Museum, Sandy Spring, Maryland, the American University Library and the American Painting Fine Art gallery, the latter two in Washington, D.C. The Sandy Spring Museum, Sandy Spring, Maryland, co-published an illustrated catalog about Kushnir's group of Potomac River painters. Andrei Kushnir also devoted two of his own exhibitions of paintings to the Potomac River, "My River" and "River Visions." His painting "Potomac Riverscape," received the Juror's Choice Award at the 1st Biennial Maryland Regional Juried Art Exhibition, presented by University of Maryland University College, 2011.