Near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) is used to explore the optical scattering from isolated metal nanoparticles (MNPs) and arrays of MNPs. The optical excitation source is an evanescent wave created through total internal reflection of a continuous wave laser beam at the sample-air interface. For optical excitation of isolated Ag and Au MNPs, experimental results show that the scattered light propagates into the far field at an angle of 19degrees from the substrate. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations are used to study simpler but related metallic nanowire systems under evanescent wave excitation. The FDTD results are found to be similar to the experimental results, indicating the generality of the scattering phenomenon. NSOM characterization of plasmonic arrays that consist of closely spaced Ag MNPs are subsequently reported. Confined optical signals within the array are observed along with a reduction in the far-field scattered signal. Simultaneous collection of the atomic force microscopy signal and near-field signals also shows that the spatial distribution of the near-field is strongly modified in the arrays compared to isolated MNPs. FDTD studies on arrays of nanowires also show large differences from the isolated metal nanoparticle calculations, including a decrease in the forward scattered angle (with chain length) and diminished overall forward scattering.