When the new Steuben County Judicial Center opened for business in early July, its walls bore five works by renowned Indiana landscape artist Doug Runyan.

Eight artists were carefully chosen to provide 28 pieces that will remain on the walls of the center in perpetuity and Runyan was one of the artists.

One interesting wrinkle in all this is that Runyan is a retired lawyer. He retired in January of 2020.

For decades, Runyan practiced law in places very much like the Steuben County Judicial Center and then he was asked to create art for one of those places.

As full-circle moments go, that seems like a particularly poignant one.

“Full circle is a good description,” Runyan said. “I made my living as a lawyer and that allowed me to pursue my passion for art. What a privilege!”

Courthouses aren’t usually very pleasant places for people who are compelled to be there but who are not part of the legal profession, he said.

“It is my hope that the artwork I have produced – and the artwork I helped select – can bring peace, comfort and beauty to a place that can be stressful and difficult,” Runyan said.

Runyan will also be one of the artistic focal points of an exhibit called “Tres Amigos,” opening Friday at the Steuben Arts Scene gallery in Angola.

It also features the work of Fred Doloresco and Mike McBride.

Where making art in his free time was concerned, Runyan was a late bloomer.

In law school, he had fallen in love with the art and artists associated with the Brown County Art Colony, which was established in 1907 by T.C. Steele.

Runyan started to collect the work of those artists in the late 1990s.

“The Brown County colony was founded by landscape painters, most of them from Chicago, looking for good scenery,” he said, “though it was not exclusively landscape painters. For much of his life, T.C. Steele made his living painting portraits so he could afford to paint the landscapes he loved.”

One of the ways the Brown County Colony artists bucked prevailing artistic practices was by preferring to paint “en plein air” – meaning outdoors – instead of in studios.

“Most of the artists painted in a spontaneous, impressionistic, light-filled, colorful style rather than the darker, traditional academic style with layers of glazing,” Runyan said.

When he turned 40, Runyan decided to take an art class sponsored by the Decatur Parks Department and taught by Janice Reifsnider.

He then took a pastel class with Lisa Ranson Smith and decided that pastels would be his preferred medium. His busy schedule had a lot to do with this choice.

“I had started with painting oil, and I discovered that pastels worked well for me, because I didn’t always have a large block of time to devote to painting, and pastels paint quickly,” Runyan said. “It’s not like traditional watercolor, where you have to wait for something to dry before you can paint next to it. So pastels really fit for me.”

For six years, Runyan also took week-long plein air classes in Brown County with Robert Hoffman every spring.

Seven years ago, he switched from pastels to gouache, which is a fast-drying, opaque watercolor paint.

One of the reasons for the swap was that Runyan moved from New Haven to Jimmerson Lake and pastels were too messy to use in his new house. In his former house, he has been able to use his garage as his studio.

“I don’t like traditional watercolor, but I really do love gouache,” he said. “It’s forgiving. You can paint over your mistakes. So I liked that and it kind of has the vibrancy of pastel. And it’s clean and easy, so I can paint at the kitchen table.”

One of the biggest local champions of Runyan’s work was Castle Gallery owner Jody Hemphill Smith, who passed away in the fall of 2023.

Runyan recalled the first time he met Jody.

“I was out painting across the street from the castle, out on the corner, doing a pastel of the castle, and she came out and she said, ‘Oh…what do you do with your paintings when you’re done?’ And I said, ‘Well, hopefully, I sell them.’ And she said, ‘When you’re done, why don’t you come across the street and let’s talk.’ And that’s how it started.

“I loved Jody,” Runyan said. “Sometimes I would just drop in on a Friday afternoon or on a Saturday, and there would be people coming through, and the first thing she would do is grab me and take me over and say, ‘I want you to meet one of our artists.’ And then she would talk about my work.”

Runyan is now, and has been for quite some time, in the delightful position of being one of Indiana’s most widely renowned landscape painters.

He has followed in the giant footsteps of the people who inspired him to become an artist and the fact of this is a little overwhelming to him at times.

“It’s exciting and sometimes it’s surreal,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll go and I’ll paint the same places. I like to go out to Cape Ann, Massachusetts. And I’ll go there and I’ll paint Motif Number 1; you know, that little red fishing shack? It’s the same place where all these people who I say are real painters painted. I’m like, ‘What am I doing here?’

“To go from someone who collected art and admired and studied art to someone who got to know the big-time painters like C.W. Mundy of Indianapolis, or Fred Doloresco – got to know them and become friends with them – and then to be asked to be in invitational exhibits with them,” Runyan said. “And I’m like, ‘What am I doing here? I’m a lawyer!’ But it’s been very rewarding. I’ve enjoyed it, and I feel like I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had good teachers, good mentors, and it’s been fun. It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun.”

Tres Amigos: Fridays and Saturdays from Friday to August 30, 11 am to 5 pm, 101 W. Maumee Street, Angola, steubenartsscene.org