Participating Artist Application
and Event Details

Plein Air Competition & Quick Draw Juror:

The competition juror is Ms. Connie Erickson. Connie began her professional portrait painting career in 1987, after a period of extensive study with Daniel Greene and several other well-known artists.

 

She works in oil and pastel and has exhibited in numerous juried exhibitions and solo shows. She has received many awards for her portrait, still life, and landscape paintings. She was a finalist in The Artist Magazine national contest in the portrait division in 1994 and won Honorable Mention in the American Society of Portrait Artists competition in 1996 in Montgomery, AL. In June 2000, she won Honorable Mention in the American Society of Portrait Artists Festival at the National Academy of Design and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In 2004, she won a Certificate of Merit with her portrait of Dylana in the Portrait Society of America Competition in Boston. She was commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution to paint the portraits of three different DAR presidents.

 

Connie taught at Watkins Institute College of Art in Nashville, Cheekwood Fine Arts Center in Nashville, gives workshops, and teaches privately. She is the former president of the Nashville Artists Guild. She is a member of the Portrait Society of America, The Pastel Society of the Southwest, The Outdoor Painters Society, and a signature member of the Pastel Society of America. Her work includes academic, corporate, and private commissions. Connie helped found and was elected the first president of The Chestnut Group: Plein-Air Painters for the Land in Nashville, Tennessee. To learn more about Connie, visit www.connieericksonstudio.com.

 

About Livingston, TN:

Livingston, TN is a small town (population 4,000) located in north central Tennessee and is known for its friendly people, picturesque town square, and surrounding natural beauty, including bucolic farms, verdant rolling hills, Dale Hollow Lake, and historic Standing Stone State Park. Driving times from nearby larger cities are:

 

• Nashville, TN: 1 hour and 30 minutes

• Chattanooga, TN: 2 hours

• Knoxville, TN: 1 hour and 45 minutes

• Lexington, KY: 3 hours

• Louisville, KY: 3 hours

• Bowling Green, KY: 2 hours

• Huntsville, AL: 3 hours

• Atlanta, GA: 3 hours and 45 minutes

 

Paint Livingston is presented by the Overton County Arts Council (OCAC). Founded in 2024, the OCAC is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Our mission is to cultivate and promote the visual arts for all residents and visitors of Overton County, TN. We offer events, classes, and festivals in visual arts and more. To learn more about OCAC, visit us online at OvertonCountyArts.org.

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Application Deadline:

This competition is now full. We have 38 artists from Knoxville, Nashville and throughout the Upper Cumberland already registered. We have to cap the number of artists at this level to ensure that our juror has ample time to to carefully assess all entries. We are now developing a standby list in case any of our registered artists have to drop out. If you want to be added to our stanby list, please email us at info@overtoncountyarts.org.   

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Housing & Hospitality:

Some discounted Airbnb and some private home accommodations will be available to participating artists who live more than an hour from Livingston. This limited housing assistance is offered on a first-come, first-served basis and is not guaranteed. Contact us at info@overtoncountyarts.org if you are interested in learning more about this opportunity. 

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In addition to the AirBnB lodging available in Overton County, there are good hotels and many more AirBnB properties in nearby Cookeville, TN, too. 

 

Artists are invited to eat and drink for free at all dinners and receptions organized by Paint Livingston. We request that artists RSVP for all dinners and receptions approximately two weeks prior, on or before Friday, September 20th.