Paint Livingston 2026

Paint Livingston 2026 is a five-day plein air competition hosted by the Overton County Arts Council (OCAC). Twenty-five juried artists will participate in this event set in Livingston — a postcard-pretty town in bucolic Middle Tennessee with a passion for plein air.

Last year, twenty-eight featured plein air painters from seven states sold upwards of 90% of their work, with a 70% artist commission.

OCAC’s goal is to make Paint Livingston a premier plein air event in the Southeast. It is the nonprofit’s most important annual fundraiser, with proceeds going toward our two-fold mission to 

1. cultivate and promote the visual arts for the benefit of all Overton County, Tennessee residents and visitors; and
2. enhance and improve art education for K-12 students in Overton County.

Highlights

• A minimum of $10,000 awarded
• Several opportunities for artists to meet patrons
• New Quick Paint Open Division
• Host housing available on first come, first served basis
• Judge: Nationally acclaimed artist Shelby Keefe

"Organized and supportive of the artists! The organizers, the volunteers, the collectors, and the sales are over the top. Beautiful landscape — so much to paint!"  -- Laura Martinez-Bianco, Paint Livingston 2025 artist

COME PAINT LIVINGSTON!

The Overton County Arts Council (OCAC) looks forward to welcoming twenty-five plein air painters for our third annual plein air event taking place from September 29 through October 3, 2026. Our five-day event is set in the rolling hills of beautiful Overton County, Tennessee and along the shores of legendary Dale Hollow Lake. Proceeds from the event go toward OCAC's mission. Host housing is available.

At last year's Paint Livingston, twenty-eight featured plein air painters sold upwards of 90% of their work, with a 70% artist commission. Our third annual event in 2026 event promises to be even bigger and better!

AWARDS

• A minimum of $10,000 awarded
• $2,000 Best of Show award
• $2,000 Artists’ Choice Award
• New Open Division for Quick Paint competition*

*The First Place winner in the Open Division of the Quick Paint will be automatically invited to participate as a featured artist in next year’s main Paint Livingston competition.

EVENT DATES: Tuesday, September 29 through Saturday, October 3, 2026.

2026 JUDGE: Shelby Keefe

The judge for Paint Livingston 2026 is nationally acclaimed, award-winning painter Shelby Keefe. Keefe hails from Wisconsin and describes her multi-faceted work as expressive realism. 

She has participated in museum shows, top-tiered plein air painting competitions nationwide and has attained Signature Status in Oil Painters of America and American Impressionist Society. Keefe has been published numerous times in well-known art magazines and was featured as the cover artist in both Southwest Art and Plein Air magazines. 

Keefe has become sought after as an instructor, teaching workshops around the country and serving as faculty for the annual Plein Air Convention & Expo.

2026 Jurors will be announced soon.

ABOUT LIVINGSTON, TENNESSEE

Livingston 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 to Livingston from nearby larger cities are as follows:

• 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
• Asheville, NC: 3 hours and 45 minutes

OVERTON COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL

Paint Livingston is presented by the Overton County Arts Council (OCAC). Founded in 2024, 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 are especially focused on improving art education and art awareness for K-12 students in the county. We offer events, classes, mixers and exhibitions focused on the visual arts, and more. To learn more about OCAC, visit us online at OvertonCountyArts.org.

HOUSING

If you are an artist interested in being hosted by a Livingston-area resident during the competition, we will work hard to match you with one of our generous host families on a first come first served basis. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to make host family accommodations for all artists who request it, but we will do so to the best of our ability.

Limited discounted Airbnb accommodations may also be available to participating artists. Additionally, Standing Stone State Park, which is just twenty minutes from downtown Livingston, may have cabins and campsites available to rent. There are also nearby campgrounds with cabins, RV sites, and campsites. 

Hotels and additional AirBnB properties can also be found in nearby Cookeville, Tennessee.

FOOD & BEVERAGES

Receptions and dinners sponsored by OCAC are complimentary for artists. OCAC will provide a free lunch to all artists on Saturday, October 3, immediately following the Quick Paint competition at the Joe L. Evins Community Center. Other efforts will be made to ensure that all artists are provided with coffee, water and snacks throughout the event.

EVENT SCHEDULE

Tuesday, September 29

12-4:30pm: Artist welcome & check-in. Canvases will be stamped at check-in.

6:00-8:30pm: Opening Reception & Dinner. Meet & greet with OCAC patrons and members.

Wednesday, September 30

Painting throughout Overton County and at Dale Hollow Lake.

Thursday, October 1           

Painting throughout Overton County and at Dale Hollow Lake.

Friday, October 2

Painting throughout Overton County and at Dale Hollow Lake.

10am-12pm: Turn in 3-5 competition paintings

12-4pm: Paintings hung and judged. 

6-9pm: Patrons Preview Sale

Saturday, October 3

9:00-11:00am: Quick Paint competition on or near courthouse square.

11-11:30am: All Quick Paint work turned in, framed and ready to place on table top easels supplied by event organizer.

11:30-1:00pm: Lunch provided for artists.

2:00-2:30pm: Main competition and Quick Draw winners announced. 

1:00-4pm: Public exhibition and art sale for competition paintings and Quick Paint paintings. 

4pm: All sales completed. Artists pick up unsold works. Settlements made within 20 business days.

For more information, please visit PaintLivingston.com or contact Overton County Arts president Tim Richardson at info@overtoncountyarts.org.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE SUBMITTING

The competition is juried. To be considered for our competition, artists must submit an application, a non-refundable $30 application fee, and three plein air paintings for our jurors to evaluate. Applications and artwork must be submitted online using the CallforEntry.org platform.

This is the only way to submit applications and artwork for consideration. Artists can set up an account at CallforEntry.org for free. It’s quick and easy. If you have additional questions after visiting this site, please email us at info@overtoncountyarts.org.

Advice about submitting digital files for jurors:

In order to upload an image of your artwork to Callforentry.org, it must meet the following minimum requirements.

Minimum Image Requirements

• Dimensions: At least 1200 pixels on the longest side
• File size: Under 5MB
• File Format: JPG or JPEG

To ensure that the jurors can see the most detail in your image, we recommend that you meet the following requirements.  

Recommended Image Requirements

• Dimensions: 1920 pixels or greater on the longest side
• File size: Under 5MB
• File Format: JPG or JPEG
• Resolution: 72 PPI – 300 PPI
• Color space: sRGB

How to Optimize Your Images

The key to optimizing the quality of your image is to keep the image size as large as you can while not letting your file size exceed 5MB. 

• Prepare your jpegs properly.
  • They should be of the paintings only with no frames and no backgrounds.
  • The image should be straight and not blurry.
  • Make sure you shoot them in the proper light.
  • View them on more than one device before submitting them.
• Submit work done in plein air and that reflects the current state of your work (within the last two years). Jurors can tell a plein air painting from a studio painting.
• Submit work that reflects the medium you will be using during the competition

The key milestones and dates in the participating artist selection process are as follows:

1. Artist can submit online applications starting on Monday, January 26, 2026.
2. The artist application deadline is 11pm (Central Time) on Monday, April 6.
3. Jurors will start evaluating applications on Tuesday, April 7.
4. Paint Livingston will select participating artists and alternates by Sunday, April 26.
5. All artists will be notified of their standing in the competition on Monday, April 27.
6. Artists must confirm their participation in the event by Friday, May 1.
7. The final field of artists set and confirmed by Paint Livingston on or about Monday, May 4.

• The main competition is open to all plein air artists 18 and over. We invite working artists experienced in plein air competitions as well as inexperienced amateur artists to apply to Paint Livingston 2026.
• Paintings in acrylic, oil, watercolor, pastel, and gouache will be accepted.
• Painting surfaces will be date stamped at the beginning of the overall competition and for the separate Quick Paint event on Saturday morning to ensure compliance with competition rules.

COMPETITION RULES

• Canvases must be blank at the beginning of the event, but toned canvases are acceptable.
• Artwork will be limited to any size up to 24” x 24” (or a maximum of 576 square inches, not including frame) and must be created in the field during the event. There is no minimum required size.
• All work is to be completed in the tradition and spirit of plein air.

Full Participation Required

• If you cannot commit to participating fully for all of the five days during our event, please do not apply. If you do not participate in the Opening Dinner on Tuesday, September 29, the Patron’s Preview Sale on Friday, October 2, and the Quick Paint on Saturday, October 3, you will not be eligible for awards and prize money.
• Name badge / lanyard should be worn by participating artists at all times while painting and during organized Paint Livingston events.

Paint Locations

• Artists will be free to paint in any area in Overton County and any Dale Hollow Lake location that is accessible and open to the public. Artists are expected to use good judgement, respect private property, and obtain landowner permission when painting on private property.
• Popular painting locations in previous years include the historic courthouse square in downtown Livingston, nearby neighborhoods, The Clark House restaurant and event center, numerous family farms, Roaring River falls, Standing Stone State Park, and Dale Hollow Lake, all within a 30-minute drive of downtown. Organizers will be happy to suggest painting locations upon request. Inclement weather plans will ensure that the event proceeds regardless of the weather.

Submission of Artwork and Framing

• Each participating artist must submit at least three paintings and no more than five paintings, framed and ready to hang for the main competition and exhibition on Friday, October 2, between 10am-12pm.
• No gallery wraps allowed.
• Artists provide their own museum quality frames with hanging wire already installed and must be prepared for wet paint installation. Artwork must be delivered with proper labels, tags, etc. provided by OCAC during the artist check-in process at the start of the event.
• OCAC will photograph all works of art created during the competition and reserves the right to use these photographs and images submitted in the application, as well as photographs of all participating artists, in its own marketing and public relations efforts.
• OCAC reserves the right to decline artworks that do not fall within the defined scope of this competition or are deemed inappropriate. Entries that do not adhere to all guidelines will not be judged.

Commissions and Pricing

• OCAC will receive 30% of all sales of artwork transacted during the event. Transactions will be handled by OCAC staff, and disbursements of funds will be made to all artists as within 20 business days via check or common electronic transaction apps like Square, Venmo, etc. Any unsold paintings in the event exhibition must be picked up by participating artists Saturday afternoon by 4pm.
• OCAC is a 501(c)3, tax-exempt nonprofit corporation. Selling artists and buying customers should check with their own professional advisors to determine if, and how much of, their 30% commission on transactions may be considered tax-deductible contributions to the OCAC.
• It is recommended that artists price their work in the range of $350-$2,000, but there are no upper limits with respect to pricing. All transactions must be handled by event staff.
• Artists cannot sell paintings at our event that were created prior to the event.
• Any commissions made during our event, or within 30 days of the event, as a direct result of connections or requests made at our event, should be disclosed to event organizers and will be subject to the same 30% commission owed to OCAC for all other sales that take place during our event.
• If any artist attempts to sell paintings outside of the event’s established methods and protocols for handing art transactions, that artist will not be invited back.

Quick Paint Competition

• A Quick Paint competition will be held on Saturday, October 3, from 9:00-11:00am. All artists participating in Paint Livingston 2026 are required to compete in the Quick Paint competition. There will be two categories of artists competing in the Quick Paint. Paint Livingston 2026 artists will be in the Featured Artists Division. Another group of artists to be selected at a later date will compete in the Open Division.
• The Paint Livingston judge will evaluate all works submitted in both Divisions separately.
• The Quick Paint event will be held on or within easy walking distance of the downtown courthouse square. Together, artists and spectators will be immersed in the creative process during this Quick Paint event.
• At 11:00am, immediately following the end of the Quick Paint, artists should take their paintings to the Joe L. Evins Community Center located at 312 West Broad Street, Livingston, TN 38570. Artists must make every reasonable effort to turn in their quick paint work by 11:30am. Quick Paint submissions must be framed but hanging wire is not needed. Artists will place their Quick Paint work on a table top easel supplied by event organizers. Any work turned in after 11:30am will not be accepted and will not be judged or displayed and will not be eligible for prizes.

More on the Quick Paint Open Division

• The First Place winner of the Quick Paint Open Division will be automatically invited to be a featured artist in the main competition of Paint Livingston 2027.
• The Quick Paint Open Division is open to all professional, semi-professional and amateur artists 18 and older.
• There will be a separate application process for the Open Division. Open Division competition details, the application process, and the application deadline will be posted at PaintLivingston.com on or about May 1.
• For more information, please visit PaintLivingston.com or contact Overton County Arts president Tim Richardson at info@overtoncountyarts.org