BRMAA's Plein Air Paint-Out Fills Fannin County With Easels Through Sunday

The Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association's 2026 Plein Air International Paint-Out opens today and runs through Sunday, sending painters out across Fannin County to work outdoors on canvas before the pieces come back to The Art Center at 420 West Main Street for judging and a two-month public exhibit.

The event, now in its 25th year as part of the International Worldwide Artist Paint Out, kicked off Thursday morning with a workshop called "The Outdoors Is Your Classroom," taught by plein air artist Marsha Hamby Savage, who is also judging this year's competition. The class runs 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the park near the Art Center and costs $125 for non-members, $112.50 for BRMAA members. Work created in the workshop won't be eligible for Sunday's judging.

Check-in for the broader paint-out also began Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Art Center, where artists get event badges, area maps, and their canvases stamped so judges can confirm the work was actually done during the event window.

Friday's Quick Paint at Old Toccoa Farm

Friday afternoon shifts the action to Old Toccoa Farm at 596 Curtis Switch Road in Mineral Bluff. Check-in for the Quick Paint event starts at 2 p.m., with artists painting from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on the property, which sits between the Chattahoochee and Cherokee national forests. Judging follows at 5 p.m., and artists are invited to stay, explore the farm, and mingle afterward.

Each artist may enter one Quick Paint piece into a silent auction. Those pieces aren't eligible for Sunday's main awards, but they will hang in the eventual exhibit. The silent auction submissions are due at the Art Center by noon Saturday, and bidding opens to the public at 1 p.m. Saturday, running through 4 p.m. Sunday.

Saturday's all-day paint-out, Sunday's deadline

Saturday is an all-day, county-wide paint-out with check-in again at 10 a.m. at the Art Center. Artists are free to set up anywhere in Fannin County that inspires them.

Sunday is the deadline day. The Art Center starts accepting exhibit and awards submissions at 11 a.m., and artists must be back with their finished, ready-to-hang work by 2 p.m. sharp. Each artist can submit up to two pieces for judging. Late work won't be accepted.

Anyone who has watched a painter set up an easel on a curb downtown knows the appeal here isn't just the finished canvas. It's free to watch, and the whole point is that people paint where they stand, not from a photo back in a studio.

A fall-long payoff

The paintings don't disappear after Sunday's ribbons are handed out. The exhibit stays up in the Art Center's Studio Gallery from September 13 through October 31, giving residents and fall leaf-peeping visitors nearly two months to see the results. Artists can pick up their work starting November 1.

BRMAA notes the exhibit will still be hanging during the association's 2026 Fall Arts in the Park festival, an event the group estimates draws more than 10,000 people over two days, so the paint-out's reach extends well past the four days artists spend at their easels.

Have a favorite spot in Fannin County you hope a painter sets up in this weekend? Tell us about it and join the conversation in our Community Forum. For more on Blue Ridge, Georgia, visit the Blue Ridge Georgia Community Website, and check out more local events coverage and arts and entertainment stories as fall festival season gets underway.