There’s a place in eastern North Carolina where 90-foot cliffs rise dramatically above a lazy river, where cypress knees create natural sculptures along shorelines, and where the changing seasons ...

Nestled in Pasco County along the Gulf of Mexico, Hudson sits comfortably north of the Tampa Bay metropolitan sprawl, creating a buffer zone between big-city bustle and small-town serenity.

But Babak, like the 18 other artists participating in the fourth annual Plein Air Smokies event—this year hosted by the Great ...