STEVE NORRIS
Smoky Mountain Artist

Steve Norris is a lifelong self-taught artist who has hiked and photographed every trail and historic site in the Great Smoky Mountains over his lifetime. In his youth he dreamed of someday becoming a forest ranger or forestry technician and taking up lifelong residence in an American national park and to live amongst its wonders everyday. But it was never to be. In later years he found a second love in painting the scenic wonders of the Smokies, with an emphasis on Cades Cove. He resides in Townsend, Tennessee – just a short walk from the national park boundary. His love of the mountains and its wildlife can be found in his attention to detail and in the accuracy of his paintings.

Steve seeks to paint Smoky Mountain scenes that demonstrate both the best of God’s creation and that of man’s most pastoral handiwork of decades past when the pace of life was slower, and lifestyles, to outward appearances at least, more idyllic. He has traveled extensively throughout the U.S. and a few locales in other countries. He has determined that the most colorful and picturesque demonstration of nature’s best is to be found here in the Tennessee Smokies. He has said numerous times that true contentment and genuine spiritual peace can best be found while hiking deep in the mountains, climbing far up the rocky streams, and watching the deer and black bear in hidden green and flowered meadows – as if being lost with no strategy to return to the “real world.” It is hoped that he has been able to convey some of this old-world feeling in his paintings.

The most noticeable appeal of Steve’s paintings is the use of foliage and tree colors that are painted at their brightest and most intense for the season shown. This is done in order to convey a strong sense of certain sentiments that can only be found in the Great Smoky Mountains. They will be sure to evoke memories and feelings of simpler times that are inherent in every place you travel in the Smokies. Taking home such a vibrant and evocative memento will provide the buyer many years of continued pleasure and renewed memories of their visit to the greatest place God has ever wrought.