WARDSBORO — The Wardsboro Public Library's Artist of the Month exhibition for October, “Remembering Arlo,” is dedicated to Arlo Monroe, who died in 2004.
A decade after his death his watercolor paintings are prized by area collectors. A reception is planned for Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m., at the library on Main Street.
The Monroe family lived in the old farmhouse that now houses the town's library. He even produced paintings of the buildings on the farm.
In a letter sent to the Friends of the Wardsboro Library several years ago, Monroe wrote, “Then, it was a small going farm, 28 acres, half a dozen cows and young stock, a few hens, a large field for hay; and across the road there was a pasture, a wood lot, a sugarbush and a sugar house.”
Monroe's father, who had moved his family from Iowa to Vermont, had purchased the property in 1931.
Monroe graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1939 and was an instructor at the University of Nebraska in the 1940s. In 1943, he took a teaching position at Leland & Gray in Townshend, and taught a variety of subjects.
He later became headmaster of the school, which at the time was a private seminary institution. He retired in 1976.
He was married to Eleanore Allen of Jamaica.
Monroe wrote, “In later years, I had exhibitions of my work in the old cow barn.”
That same old cow barn is the newly renovated wing of the public library, completed in 2013. The current exhibition of his watercolors is in the library's lobby and reception area, also renovated with professional halogen-based gallery lighting.
Many throughout Windham County know Monroe's name from the work he undertook on various murals.
One of his projects was the mural “Sugaring” at Jamaica Town Hall. He also assisted in the murals at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro.
Throughout his career, he was a regular exhibiting member of the Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester, where he served on the board and numerous committees. Many of the people to whom he taught painting have become successful artists.
Monroe painted a great many of the traditional and favorite scenes of the Vermont landscape: fall foliage, brooks and streams, old houses and barns, and hills and mountains.
He was an expert draughtsman admired for the clean, well-drawn shapes and bold colors of his rather large paintings. For that, and for his readily identifiable subjects, Monroe's work remains warmly recognizable.