Finley River - Ozarks, Missouri

“Landmarks on the River”

6x12”, Oil on Primed Linen Panel

One of our final days at the PACE Convention, the Plein Air Convention and Exposition, was held at Finley Farms, which backs right up to Finley River. There’s a nice bridge over the water, and a beautiful forest wedding venue on the other side.

The are a lot of advantages to going to an event like PACE. For one, I had never been to Missouri (or the Ozarks). It brought a dramatic change of scenery than I’m used to in Colorado. Another benefit is the sheer amount of people you are constantly painting around. It was completely surreal to be surrounded by hundreds of other plein air painters, all painting in the same area, capturing little aspects of the landscape through their own style and vision. Perhaps the biggest benefit, though, is the endless stream of critique and guidance given through instructors and other painters.

We had a runaway painting, which a poor painter lost over the side of the bridge into the river (but was promptly retrieved by a brave soul braving river snakes), and an easel left alone which consistently fell over in the wind. My gear, thankfully, remained solid.

I chose a rather intimate view of a sharp, shining rock belied by deep ochre-green water. I really had to break out my greens in the Ozarks and this was no exception. I also stuck to another cinematic panel ratio - a 6×12, landscape. I tend to gravitate towards water when I paint, even when other subjects around interest me. Maybe it’s the loose, playful experience or the challenge that it brings. But I also gravitate toward other people’s paintings of water to see how they choose to portray its intricacies.

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I stood beside the gals I had traveled with, and we painted side-by-side. I felt pretty honored to be able to go to an event like this for a skill that feels so niche (but really isn’t). It opened me up to the web of plein air events that have existed all around me, of which I didn’t even know.

PACE 2026 Featured Artists

I had a lot of cool experiences at PACE 2026, but this day in particular lives rent-free in my mind. The typical schedule of events follows a paint-out after a morning and early afternoon of demos, and one of our keynote speakers, Kevin MacPherson, took an interest in my painting and spoke an incredible amount of courage and confidence into me about my artwork. I was incredibly honored to have piqued his interest, especially in the midst of what was one of my worst art block phases of my career. It felt incredibly surreal to go from taking notes as he stood on a stage in front of me to speaking with him one-on-one regarding my own work. I didn’t even realize it was him beside me at first, and paled a bit as I turned to face him and realized who it was speaking to me. He was incredibly kind and down-to-earth.

I haven’t touched this painting since, and prefer to leave it as a work done fully en plein air. Besides one instructor who continually came up, lamenting that there was “just something” off about the piece that he couldn’t figure out how to fix (one of the more unhelpful critiques I’ve had in my time), everyone had genuinely kind things to say about it and helpful advice on fixing a couple of areas I struggled with in the beginning.

We decided to eat dinner at the restaurant right beside the river, and it was some of the best food I’ve had. Crazily enough, as we were sitting there eating, up comes Kevin MacPherson right to the side of the table to introduce me to his colleague. I was at a loss, and incredibly grateful for the experience.