Anything but plein: artist paints campus, Indiana landscape

In the midst of campus on fall days, Lyle Denney, a plein air or outdoor, painter, recorded scenes on canvas.

He has created works of art at the IU campus multiple times. This year, Denney, who focuses on landscapes, painted for a publication called Painting Indiana III: Landscapes Revisted, which contains plein air paintings from every county in the state.

In order to learn the properties of mixing paint, Denney said he only allowed himself to paint with primary colors for years. While he paints, he listens to classical music and the sounds of opera and piano fill the air.

As Denney dipped his brush into the purple paint to make a shadow, he explains the intricacies of color on his palette.

“Music and painting are so much alike, so related,” he said.  “Music has seven notes and you mix paint to get the seven basic colors.”