by T.C. Steele are the painter's legacy to the people of Indiana. Several hundred of Steele's paintings
are preserved at the T.C. Steele State Memorial near Nashville, Indiana. Beyond the tangible legacy
of these paintings, T.C. Steele left a living legacy, a school of landscape painting that still flourishes.
Today, the wild beauty of the hills of Brown County continues to inspire a community of artists founded
by this man.
Theodore Clement Steele was one of Indiana's best known painters. In 1907, at the age of 60, Steele
left Indianapolis and built his studio home, the House of the Singing Winds, on a desolate hillside
near Nashville, Indiana. Here Steele's brush recorded the plays of light and the varying moods of nature
on the Indiana hill country. Steele painted what he saw about him. Indiana hills and valleys, bits of
streams and pasture,
picturesque woods and lanes, humble homes by the wayside. All places such as we may still see today,
but invested with a special charm by the magic of his brush. Steele was a painter of natural
national stature, yet he chose to celebrate his own state. His love for the Brown County Hills drew
others to the House of the Singing Winds. His studio home became a gathering place, not just for his
fellow artists, but for poets and writers like James Wickham Riley and Hamlin Garland.
This project seeks support for presenting T.C. Steel's contribution to Indiana culture and heritage
to a wider audience. Through narration of his arts, dramatization of his life, and presentation of his
works, the documentary will examine Steel's relationship to his time, his subjects, and his fellow artists.