Blue Ridge Parkway art

By Clay Fleming

A great mingling of art creators and aficionados and Blue Ridge Parkway lovers celebrated the opening night for our benefit art show, Of Valley & Ridge: A Scenic Journey Through the Blue Ridge Parkway, hosted in collaboration with The Saints of Paint at Zealandia in Asheville, North Carolina. We’d like to thank everyone who attended the event on Friday and visited throughout the weekend to purchase art.

As we travel the Blue Ridge Parkway, most of us capture the awe-inspiring scenes with a camera. But if you’ve been exploring the park recently, you just might have encountered one of the many artists working en plein air, a French expression meaning “in the open air,” to capture the wonders of the mountains on canvas. Sitting in front of small easels with brushes and paint-smeared palettes in hand, these artists leave the walls of the studio behind to experience painting amid the landscape and fresh air.