Lois Main Templeton
The Surf's Low Roar
That Day at Old Orchard Beach
Wind in the Cattails
Lois Main Templeton (American, 1928-2018)
Twice exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, Lois Main Templeton’s artwork features vibrant combinations of contemporary art and poetry. Her expressive abstract paintings—typically in oil on paper, but also featuring acrylics, charcoal, and other mediums—combine vigorous mark-making with excerpts from her writings.
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Templeton lived in San Francisco in the 1970s, where she studied art at Cañada College and was inspired by the Bay Area jazz and art scenes. When she and her family relocated to Indiana, Templeton enrolled at Herron School of Art in Indianapolis. She graduated magna cum laude in 1981 and later taught at the school. She located her studio in a downtown warehouse building; as other artists followed suit, her decision became a driving force behind the revitalization of the Indianapolis arts scene. She was a founding member of ArtMix (formerly Very Special Arts of Indiana), a nonprofit organization that creates learning opportunities through the arts for individuals with disabilities.
Among her many honors, Templeton received the Herron School of Art and Design Distinguished Alumni of the Year in 2013, the NUVO Cultural Vision Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, a 2001 Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and an Artists Project Award from the Indiana Arts Commission in 2000. She was selected to create the 1997 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award. The Indiana State Museum featured a retrospective exhibit of her work in 2018.
A prolific artist, Templeton worked from her studios in Indianapolis and Maine until her death at age 90. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Indiana State Museum, Midwest Museum of American Art, and Richmond Art Museum.