Portraits of Nature

by

Landscape artist Robert Tino captures the character of the Great Smoky Mountains in oil paintings.

A short detour from Hwy. 441 on the Sevierville end of the bumper-to-bumper route to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, takes travelers to a white, two-story farmhouse in the rolling countryside. In the residence-turned-gallery, paintings line the walls of each room, echoing the recurring Appalachian themes Robert Tino has explored over the past 30 years: mountains and meadows, streams and sunflowers, bobwhites and bears.

Tino, 60, and his wife Mary John—her grandparents once lived in the 1844 home, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places—recently celebrated 30 years at Sunset View Farm, also a haven for the acclaimed landscape artist’s studio. His original paintings, glicees and prints are sold in fine art galleries across the South.

Despite Tino’s self-proclaimed “loner” personality, he comes across as friendly and warm, with a distinct Southern twang and a delightful sense of humor. 

“What I really like is people coming down the country road that’s in front of the gallery and finding us here where the barns and the cows are,” says Tino, who works mostly in oils. “Life slows down a little bit.”

Born in Bristol, Tennessee, he moved more than a dozen times with his family throughout the Carolinas and Virginia before landing in Sevierville in 1977. He had just started high school.

By then, he’d been sketching for a few years, often inspired by images that came to him while listening to music, from gospel to contemporary instrumental to rock, something he still does. 

“Some of my paintings are inspired by some real crazy stuff,” he says with a laugh. “Quite honestly, if anything [good] ever came out of Black Sabbath, it was probably that. I was 13 or 14 years old and didn’t realize they were singing about cocaine.”

Sevierville proved to be an ideal place for a kid who was interested in not only drawing and painting, but in nature and seasonal beauty and hiking in the woods with his buddies. 

“It just kind of clicked,” Tino says. “I started painting a few favorite spots that I’d see on the rivers up here, and the mountains.”

He was still in high school when he participated in his first art show on the lawn of the Sevierville County Courthouse; at 20 he sold his first limited-edition print, “Distant Ridge,” which depicted a historic house built in the late 1700s. Back then, he primarily painted with acrylics but would later segue to watercolors and oils.

At the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tino majored in business and political science. He didn’t want to go to art school, he says, because by that time he was already making a living as an artist. And unlike some creative types, he truly enjoyed the business side and “using both sides of my brain.”

In 1984, he opened his first public gallery in a 500-square-foot storefront in downtown Sevierville, and eight years later the couple moved to their current location. Tino carries a high-end camera with him on hikes in the Smokies and occasionally completes small paintings outside, but produces his “major stuff” in the studio. In the hallways of his frame shop hang numerous paintings of pumpkins, one of his all-time favorite subjects. 

He is also obsessed with bears. “Besides dogs, bears are my favorite animal. They’ve just got so much personality and, of course it doesn’t hurt that they’re kind of the mascot of the Smoky Mountains. Everybody loves them.”

Twenty years ago, he was sketching one on canvas when he picked up a painting trowel and, out of the blue, his trademark realism gave way to abstraction. 

“There’s a lot of emotion in it and it was totally different than anything that I have ever done as far as painting. The following bears kind of went along with that, and then they got more playful.”

For the past few years, Tino has painted cub portraits in front of a live audience to raise funds for the Appalachian Bear Rescue, which cares for abandoned black bears. He also supports the nonprofit Friends of the Smokies and, despite his introverted nature, in 2021 competed in a local “Dancing With the Stars” event to benefit the United Way of Sevier County. Mimicking Tom Cruise’s iconic scene in Risky Business, Tino slid across the floor in his “tighty whities” to the music of “Old Time Rock & Roll” before dancing to a medley of other songs. He and his performance partner came in second.

Braving the choreographed steps and a roomful of 500 people was a “high point,” he recalls, adding, “That was the hardest three-and-a-half minutes of my life.”

Despite the evergreen nature of his favorite subjects, there are times when Tino finds himself focusing on one thing: mountain vistas, rivers or a certain type of animal. The same goes for colors. “I’ll go months where I just basically work in a certain palette,” he says, noting his passion for sunsets, twilight and other “moody” backdrops. He describes himself as an “evening person” who rises early each day to start painting. 

The past few years, he’s been creating more contemporary pieces, including female figures in vintage clothing from the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. 

“But I always cycle back to the mountains and the Tennessee landscapes that I’m known for,” he says.

In spite of his high-profile success and a customer base that never seems to tire of his work, the best part about being an artist, he says, is that “I do what I want to do. When I get up in the morning, I want to paint. That’s what God put me on this earth to do.

“I’ve been in business a long time, but since the world has changed with COVID, it’s been two of the busiest years that we’ve ever had. And the people say, ‘Thank you for doing what you do.’ It gives me a moment to reflect and a moment of peace and it makes me feel good. I’ve noticed that more and more, and that has really meant so much to me as an artist.” 

The story above first appeared in our January / February 2023 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!