Paint and Canvas: A Life of T.C. Steele

At age fourteen, a young man in Waveland, Indiana, took over the family farm after his father's death. Now responsible for his widowed mother and four brothers, he began preparing the field for planting. Family legend has it that the young farmer, Theodore Clement Steele, tied “colored ribbons to the handles of the plow so that he could watch the ribbons in the wind and the effect that they had on the [surrounding] colors.” Steele’s mother recognized his passion for art and supported his choice to be an artist. T. C. Steele, the eighth volume in the IHS Press’s youth biography series, traces Steele’s career from his early studies in Germany to his determination to paint Indiana's landscape. Steele became a member of the renowned Hoosier Group and a leader in the development of Midwestern art.

Grades 7-12. Hardcover. 166 pages. 2012, Indiana Historical Society Press. By Rachel Berenson Perry.