J. Ottis Adams was one of five members of The Hoosier Group, Indiana’s artistic group at the turn of the 20th century dedicated to painting the Indianian landscape in an Impressionist style. Adams spent the majority of his artistic education in Europe, initially in London before studying in Munich, Germany along with the four other members of the Hoosier Group. In London, Adams studied and copied landscape works by John Constable and J.M.W. Turner; the influence of these artists is visible in Adams’ dramatic seascapes and brushstrokes. Adams is credited with igniting passion for the arts in Muncie Indiana and like his Hoosier peer T. C. Steele, with defining the art scene in Indiana in the late 19th century.