Carroll County artist Terry Lacy will give a lecture April 6 in Fort Wayne on the topic, "The Artist as Historian: Painting the Wabash and Erie Canal."

He will speak as part of the Allen County/Fort Wayne Historical Society's George R. Mather Lecture Series.

The lecture will begin at 2 p.m. in the Freimann Room at 302 East Berry Street, Fort Wayne. It is free to the public.

Lacy has degrees from the Herron School of Art (BFA) and Indiana University (MFA).

He was the artist for the series of large-scale oil paintings in the Wabash & Erie Canal Interpretive Center in Delphi. The paintings depict historic scenes on the Wabash & Erie Canal extending from Toledo, Ohio, through Fort Wayne, Wabash, Logansport, Delphi, Lafayette, Attica, Terre Haute, and south to Evansville on the Ohio River. The mural circles the entire lobby of the Interpretive Center, and most of the paintings measure between six and eleven feet in length.

Lacy had to imagine what certain sites may have looked like long after they had been altered by the intrusion of a modern world. Through extensive research and a keen eye for telling details, he created a sense of time and space from a bygone era.

Lacy's highly visual presentation will demonstrate how historic clues can contribute to a more faithful artistic expression.