Early Artist
Leota Loop and bottles of ink for paint. As a teenager she painted flowers on women’s dresses for extra money. Her sketches won first place ribbons in the Madison County Fair. She studied art at the Fairmont Academy with Olive Rush, who became well-known in the Southwest art world. Loop received further instruction and guidance from William Forsyth at the John Herron Art Institute; T.C. Steele, founder of the Hoosier Group; and Will Vawter; as well as Edward Stitzman in Morgan County and Randolph LaSalle Coats. Landscapes were her primary subject until around 1927, when she needed to be near her sick father. Then she turned to painting florals using fresh bouquets from her own garden. She returned to landscapes after her father’s death and she could again visit southern Indiana between the seasons of blooming dogwood trees through the end of the colors of autumn foliage. Continued on 66
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~by Julia Pearson
ithin the vault of the permanent collection of the Brown County Art Gallery and Museum located at One Artist Drive are ten pieces by Leota Loop, who is perhaps Peaceful Valley’s best-known art teacher. Loop is admired among local art lovers who always visit her paintings when they are on exhibit. She is especially beloved by those whose lifespans overlap hers. A native Hoosier daughter, Leota Williams was born on October 26, 1893 in Fountain City, and grew up in Elwood. She was the youngest of five siblings. When she was ten years old, she sold her first sketch. With the inventiveness of childhood, she used materials at hand to create her art—grocers’ wrapping paper for canvas, chicken feathers for brushes,
62 Our Brown County • Nov./Dec. 2021
“Yellow Roses,” courtesy Brown County Art Gallery.
