A professional musician and artist in Jefferson is doing a new program that involves state parks in Iowa.

Chad Elliott of Elliott Art Studio is merging his love of art, music and being in nature with the new Paint the Park series as he describes the details of what he will be doing.

“I’ll go out in the park that day (and) find a spot, set up my easel, paint there live for anybody to watch. And then these parks have agreed to kind of do a concert that night or that afternoon and I’ll unveil the painting. And that painting, they’ll (the park) will own the rights to the image so they can make prints if they want to do fundraisers or anything like that.”     

Elliott points out Paint the Park will allow him to be inspired by nature, which can be challenging to find that exact location where he can create his art.

“As anybody has ever tried to paint on the site, it’s always dependent (on) weather and the lighting. So some place that everyone loves might not look that great at this time of day, so you find other spots. So I’ll be looking for that and I’m sure I’ll have lots of suggestions from folks that love these parks, and that’s what I’m looking forward to too is getting to know Iowa’s state parks.”

The seven park schedule kicks off on July 2nd at Whiterock Conservancy and finishes at Reiman Gardens on September 15th. Click the image below to see the full list. Elliott adds the concerts are free, but free-will donations will be accepted to benefit the parks themselves.