Imagine painting alongside hundreds of other artists, each seeing the same fields, mountains, river, and sky. Yet, each painter captures a different view, subject, mood, reflection because each artist has a unique perspective and story to tell.

At the Plein Air Convention and Expo, I painted this scene along the banks of the Tuckasegee River at Darnell Farms in Bryson City, North Carolina. The farm is tucked into the Great Smoky Mountains hundreds of miles away from central Pennsylvania, but connected by the long range of the Appalachians. The scene felt both familiar, and new.