If you can’t get to one of the beautiful state parks in Arkansas, those parks can come to you via a traveling exhibition and a companion collector art book. Painting the Arkansas Parks—A Celebration of Nature and Art—was on view at three locations in the state earlier this year and is at Arts on Main in Van Buren until July 3. It will then travel to Mississippi River State Park in Marianna from July 10 to September 20 and to the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock from September 25 to January 24, 2027.

 

The View, Charles Harrington, acrylic, 30″ by 30″

 

Painting the Arkansas Parks is the result of a series of plein air events conducted in the state’s five major geographic regions. Heart of America sponsored those events, which started in 2022 and attracted almost 70 artists whose goal was to capture the diversity and beauty of the state’s landscapes.

The “field-to-finish” exhibit features sizable artworks along with the smaller plein-air studies that inspired them. The paintings also include descriptive texts written by the artists, who describe the subjects, locations, and the reasons they chose their specific themes.

 

Deep Roots, John Lasater, oil on canvas, 18″ by 24″

 

Heart of America’s mission is, in part, to create and conduct exhibitions of exceptional paintings and drawings by its members. The nonprofit was founded by artists Todd Williams and John P. Lasater IV to grow the appreciation of two-dimensional fine art and to promote the culture of the Midwest to the fine arts community nationwide.

Heart of America has also published “Painting the Arkansas Parks—A Celebration of Nature and Art”—in book form that includes paintings from the project and a text written by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.