With each brushstroke, plein air painters capture the magic of the mountains

On a piece of rocky ground at the base of a steep bank along the mist-shrouded Little River, oil painter Olena Babak sets up her easel. It’s late in the day to be starting a new piece—less than three hours of sunlight remain—and Babak is fresh from an hours-long painting session in the Elkmont area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But something about the scene compels her.

“Sometimes it’s like an impulse,” she said. “Sometimes it’s contemplated. Sometimes, a scene sort of drags you in, and you need to figure out why.”

The Great Smokies offer a markedly different landscape than her home state of Maine. But Babak, like the 18 other artists participating in the fourth annual Plein Air Smokies event—this year hosted by the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont—found ample inspiration while painting there September 21-27.

“You always want to paint everything,” she said, “and there’s just not enough time.”

Great Smoky Mountains National Park covers 816 square miles, stretching from rugged mountaintops to valley rivers, so for artists like Babak finding scenes to paint was easy. The challenge was deciding which ones to depict.

“For me, the goal is always to help people find a personal connection to the outdoors,” said Erin Rosolina, Tremont’s marketing director. “We know that moments of wonder and awe in nature benefit both mental and physical health, and plein air painting provides another pathway to those experiences.”

“Plein air” painting, French for “open air,” describes the practice of painting while outdoors, experiencing the scene in person. Plein Air Smokies was created by Friends of the Smokies in 2022, and the park partner hosted it for three years before passing the torch to Tremont for 2025. The event brings nationally recognized artists from across the country to spend a week experiencing the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains, painting the scenes that inspire them, and participating in a variety of public events designed to get people excited about art and the national park.

“Our programs encourage people to slow down, notice patterns, and experience wonder in nature,” Rosolina said. “Plein air painting does exactly the same. Since Tremont already offers photography workshops and a writers’ conference that use nature as inspiration, this event felt like a natural fit.”

This year, the artists spent five days painting at locations scattered throughout the park, including several painting demonstrations at specific locations like the Tremont campus and the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend, Tennessee. On the morning of Friday, September 26, artists worked one-on-one with art students from three regional high schools—Gatlinburg-Pittman, Fulton, and William Blount—walking through the entire painting process together on Tremont’s campus.  Later that evening, the artists displayed their work from the past week for sale during the Collectors Celebration event at the District Gallery and Framery in Knoxville. Though a portion of the sales went to the gallery and to Tremont, most went back to the artists.

The 19 oil, acrylic, and watercolor artists who participated this year traveled from 13 different US states, stretching from Texas to Wisconsin and Maine to Florida. Some, like Babak, were experiencing the Smokies for the first time. Other had been coming to Plein Air Smokies for years. This was Kansas City, Missouri, resident Richard Sneary’s third year participating in the event. 

“It’s hard to beat national parks, no matter which one it is,” Sneary said. “This one is particularly special.”

A native of Maryland, Sneary loves the Smokies’ rivers and mountains. They connect him with his roots on the East Coast, where the trees are bigger and the mountains greener than in the Western states. Of course, the greenery is only possible due to the significant rainfall the region receives, something that was acutely evident to this year’s painters. According to the National Weather Service, Townsend received rain during five of the seven days of Plein Air Smokies.

“When you start seeing those spots show up, it’s time to turn your painting over and get it out of the way,” said Sneary, who paints in watercolor.

For plein air painters, meeting such challenges is part of the game; the outdoors provide inspiration, but also throw plenty of curveballs. Over time, artists develop the skills they need to hit a home run even when conditions aren’t perfect.

“The painting I finished today, I started when it was sunlight,” said Massachusetts-based oil painter John Caggiano, also a third-time participant. Then the rain came. “Some got on the canvas, and thank God I had the skill to carry through the intent of the painting. Although it would have been nice to have the sunlight, I didn’t need it.”

By definition, plein air work requires travel. For many of the artists who flocked to the Smokies last month, Tremont was one of many stops on their painting calendar. Caggiano traveled directly from Townsend to another event in Lichfield, Connecticut, while Sneary left for Cape Ann, Massachusetts, and from there traveled to Sedona, Arizona. The schedule can be exhausting, but also incredibly fulfilling.

“It’s a solitary profession, so plein air events give one an opportunity to meet lots of nice people, and 99 percent of the people who participate in these plein air events are really nice,” Caggiano said. “We look forward to it because that’s our chance to socialize and be with our plein air family.”

Painters forge connections over a shared love of both the discipline and of the landscapes they paint. For Rosolina, a favorite memory of the week was formed when watercolor artist Richie Vios showed her the piece he’d completed an hour before the deadline for the artists to turn in their submissions for the gallery. The painting showed Tremont’s Council House, the open-air gathering space where many of the institute’s programs begin and end.

“He depicted it with people gathered around a fire, capturing its essence as a place of connection,” she said. “From his short week at Tremont, he understood how much we value these connections to nature and to each other, how beloved this space is, and how many lives have been impacted by their time at Tremont. It was perfect.”

For more information about events at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, including the 2026 Plein Air Smokies event, visit gsmit.org.