Thomsen Lynn Thomsen painted with a passion.

She was passionate about her Carroll County roots, the rural landscape, and nature, and it showed in her paintings.

"She loved to paint Carroll County," said her husband, Clifford Hull.

Both teachers in Indianapolis, they returned frequently to Carroll County on weekends or in the summer.

Lynn painted most of her landscapes from the bed of her pickup truck.

"She drove around till she found an ideal spot," her husband said.

"I usually didn't go with her because I didn't want to distract her," Clifford said.

Ever mindful of her dedication to her art, he would catch up with her from time to time with fresh squeezed lemonade and a kiss for encouragement.

Lynn painted what many people in Carroll County take for granted - fields of corn and beans, bales of hay, rural roads, rivers and bridges.

In her artist's statement, Lynn wrote, "I am happiest when people who have lived here all their lives see these paintings and are amazed to discover what has been in front of their eyes all along."

The beauty of Carroll County Lynn Thomsen wanted others to see and appreciate the beauty she saw in Carroll County rural landscapes. She titled this painting "First Cutting, Penn's Farm." What makes her oil paintings striking, said longtime friend Sara Daly-Brosman, are the vivid colors, especially the greens. "Lynn loved green," she said.

Fellow artist and friend Terry Lacy added that Lynn painted outdoors, in natural light, and selected a point of view that made a good composition.

"She got it at a certain time of day, or right after a rain - at just the right time," he said.

"Lynn could have done a composition of several sites, but she painted what she saw," Terry explained.

Sara said Lynn also gave her paintings specific titles, such as "From Scott's lane," "First Cutting, Penn's Farm," "Alfalfa hay along State Road 75," and "Pleasant Run Cemetery Road."

Lynn's husband and mother, Jean Thomsen, selected 20 of Lynn's Carroll County paintings for an exhibit hosted by the Delphi Public Library. As adult services librarian, Sara organized the show, and she and Terry hung the paintings in the lower level program room. The show started Aug. 15 and runs through Sept. 11. A remembrance reception is planned for Aug. 29 at 7 p.m.

Mobile studio Lynn Thomsen never painted from photographs. A plein air painter, she wanted to breathe in the beauty as she painted. She traveled the Carroll County countryside, stopping when she saw a spectacular view with perfect lighting and composition. Painting from the bed of her pickup, she first created a one-color underpainting. She then added layers of color, producing the vibrance she saw in the moment. Called "Carroll County Retrospective," Jean said the exhibit is a retrospective of Carroll County, seen through Lynn's eyes.

Lynn died in January at age 50. She was chairman of the Visual Arts Department and visual arts teacher at Park Tudor, a private school in Indianapolis. Her husband teaches Latin and ancient Greek at the same school.

Lynn's family includes two siblings - a sister, Teresa, and a brother, Eric.

Teresa's favorite story about her sister was when Lynn was in second grade and her teacher sent her home because she refused to color inside the lines.

"She was drawing her own lines and embellishing the pages to her liking," Teresa said.

Eric wrote a profile of Lynn, which accompanies her paintings at the show.

He tells about the influence of their parents, Jean and Cliff, on Lynn's art, and about the influence of a local artist and art teacher, the late Barbara Walker. He also mentions that Lynn sold her first painting as a teenager at Delphi Community High School. At the annual Delphi Art Show at the school, local postmaster at the time, Tom Van- Sickle, asked if he might purchase one of her works. She sold it to him for $5.

Lynn continued her studies at the Herron School of Art, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

While she taught art, she also became a noted Hoosier artist.

"She did not paint to sell," her husband said. "She wanted to depict on paper what she saw and enjoyed."

"Art and life were the same thing to her," wrote her friend Barbara Shoup.

Her friends and family members say she was amazed by life and amazed by nature, and she painted what she saw - in detail. She saw beauty in everything, and she could picture the possibilities in life and in art.

"The biggest irony is that her paintings are so full of life, and she died so young," Clifford said. "She had so much more to give."

He said when they were in the city, her Carroll County paintings made her feel closer to home. Now, he said those same paintings are soothing to him.

"One consolation of Lynn's departure," said her brother, "is that in teaching art, Lynn planted the seeds of passion for the subject in several of her students who today are emerging as wonderful artists in their own right. These were her children and in many ways her immortality."

Carroll County Retrospective

During regular library hours: Mon.-Thurs., 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fri., 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Hours change Sept. 1.)