The Guild of the Knoxville Museum of Art presents Artists on Location (AOL) 2020 – an art show and sale at the Knoxville Museum of Art Saturday, April 25 from 5 to 9pm. Artists on Location promotes the museum’s connection to the local and regional art community by providing an outlet for artists to sell their work and encouraging people to collect it.

Artists paint outdoors during the Artists on Location event; image courtesy of KMA

This event will provide both new and seasoned collectors a rare opportunity to buy original paintings of Knoxville and East Tennessee.

From Monday, April 20, through Friday, April 24, talented artists selected through a juried process will be painting outdoors in and around the Knoxville area. The public is invited to watch the AOL artists in action as they capture on canvas a wide variety of subject matter, from urban street scenes to pastoral garden settings. The specific locations the artists will be painting in plein-air will be published on the Knoxville Museum of Art’s website prior to the event and will be followed on the KMA Guild’s Instagram page.

The annual art show and sale held at the KMA on Saturday, April 25, 5-9pm is free and open to the public and includes light refreshments and a cash bar. Proceeds of the sale will benefit both participating artists and the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Painting in open air or plein-air became popular in the mid-19th century of the French Impressionist seeking to capture the effects of light and its changing ephemeral qualities in the atmosphere. The practice of painting on location increased in popularity with the development of transportable paint tubes and box easels.