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7 Days, 100 Paintings For Two Indiana Artists

wyatt legrand painting outside

One hundred new works of art in seven days. That's what two Indiana artists set out to paint last week.

On a Sunday afternoon, Wyatt LeGrand and Roy Boswell are at the small chapel on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, painting the cemetery's tombstones.

LeGrand is a bit surprised to find himself here. "I don't think I ever thought, 'I want to paint that gravestone,'" he says. "But the light is right on it and it looks pretty cool. As you'll see with most of our paintings, it's not so much about the subject matter as it is the appearance of what we're painting."

LeGrand and Boswell are plein air painters, meaning they work outdoors, at the mercy of changing light and the elements.

After six days of traveling to places such as Bloomfield, Vernon, and even the state fair in Indianapolis, the artists have amassed more than forty paintings each.

Their goal of finishing the week with one hundred paintings is within sight. For LeGrand, the week-long spectacle is as much a part of the art as the paintings themselves.

The show is not just about the finished product, it's about the process of making the paintings. Showing that you can complete a nice solid body of work that is very cohesive and is really impressive-you can do it in a small time frame, and it doesn't have to be a labored thing, it can be a very spontaneous thing.


The artists will display work from the week's travels at a show at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center in December.

The only hiccup? There might not be enough wall space for all 100 paintings.

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