Lanford Monroe (1950–2000) was an internationally known American realist

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. She was best known for

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

s frequently featuring

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

equine Equinae is a subfamily of the family Equidae, known from the Hemingfordian stage of the Early Miocene (16 million years ago) onwards. They originated in North America, before dispersing to every continent except Australia and Antarctica. They are ...

subjects. She was the daughter of noted

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

illustrator C.E. Monroe, Jr. and

portraitist A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better re ...

Betty Monroe Beatriz Monroy Alarcón, professionally known as Betty Monroe (born March 4, 1978) is a Mexican actress and model. Career Early career beginnings; 1991-2000 Betty has been quite notable for playing villainous roles in several productions. She s ...

, and was also influenced by artist neighbors

John Clymer John Ford Clymer (January 29, 1907 – November 2, 1989) was an American painter and illustrator known for his paintings and illustrations, often featuring the American West. Early life and education Born in Ellensburg, Washington, Clymer f ...

and Bob Kuhn in her hometown of

Bridgewater, Connecticut Bridgewater is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,662 at the 2020 census, a decline from the figure of 1,727 tabulated in 2010. The town is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region. Bridgewater ...

. Lanford grew up in Huntsville, Alabama and graduated from Huntsville High School in 1968. Having completed her first commission at six years of age, Monroe spent most of her life with her work. She attended the Ringling School of Art in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...

, and thereafter traveled throughout the country in pursuit of new projects. As Monroe's career developed, she moved from

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

as her primary medium to

oils An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturat ...

. Her awards include the Society of Animal Artists Award of Excellence, the American Academy of Equine Art Popular and Landscape Awards and the Grand Teton Natural History Association Award. Monroe died in 2000 due to a heart attack at her home near

Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, Taos County, in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Santa Fe ...

. Following her death, Monroe's husband published a biography, '' Homefields: The Art of Lanford Monroe''. He also helped the

National Museum of Wildlife Art The National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) is a museum located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, United States that preserves and exhibits wildlife art. The 51,000 square foot building with its Idaho quartzite façade was inspired by the ruins of Slains ...

establish an artist-in-residence program in her memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monroe, Lanford Equine artists 1950 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters People from Bridgewater, Connecticut People from Huntsville, Alabama Artists from Albuquerque, New Mexico 20th-century American male artists