Wednesday, August 2, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
7
Western artist to hold show in Sisters
By Craig Rullman
Correspondent
A living buckaroo legend
— and accomplished artist
— Len Babb will host a show
in Sisters, August 5 and 6,
from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., at the
Sisters Fire Hall Community
Room. The show will feature
Len’s original oil paintings,
watercolors, pen-and-ink
drawings and sculptures.
Len’s art has been favor-
ably compared to Western
artist Charles Russell, and
it is a comparison Len
embraces. Babb told The
Nugget: “Russell once said
that big hats and high-heeled
boots don’t make cowboys,
but bib overalls and muley
cattle don’t make pictures.
And Russell’s wife was pretty
protective of him. She said
that ‘If it isn’t like Russell,
it’s wrong.’”
The comparison to
Russell’s work is probably
inevitable, but Len Babb’s art
is entirely his own.
Working out of his hand-
built log-cabin studio on a
sagebrush hill overlooking
Paisley, Babb brings vivid
buckaroo images to life in
celebrated works such as
“Running Iron.” His studio
is packed with memorabilia
from a lifetime spent in the
saddle, as a working cowboy,
buckaroo — and together
with one of his sons — as
an accomplished and much-
sought-after saddlemaker.
From early childhood, Len
has worked on cow outfits
large and small, famous and
infamous, from Wyoming to
Oregon.
Speaking of his paint-
ings, which depict working
cowboys in the age before
automobiles, Babb said: “My
paintings were never inspired
by my work. Buckarooing
is just something a guy
likes. The rest of the world
wouldn’t even understand it.
It ain’t romantic at all. You
gotta like horses, that’s the
main thing.
“Since I was a little bitty
kid I liked to draw,” Babb
said. “I remember being
awfully frustrated because
my dad, why, he’d take a pen-
cil and just draw a horse, and
never take his pencil off the
paper. My mother was artis-
tic too. I remember fighting
trying to draw them horses.
But Russell inspired me,
and that’s where it all came
about.”
One of his favorite Russell
paintings was “Call of the
Law,” Len said. “I just fell in
love with it. I remember lay-
ing on the floor (as a young
boy) looking at it. And I
wanted to be able to draw like
that one day. So I pushed all
my life. And I got to where I
really enjoyed it.”
My paintings were
never inspired by my
work. Buckarooing is just
something a guy likes.
The rest of the world
wouldn’t even
understand it.
— Len Babb
Babb, who first came to
the world’s attention as a
subject of noted Texas pho-
tographer Bank Langmore’s
famous 1970s-era study of
working American cowboys
in the book “The Cowboy,”
is as authentic an artist of
PHOTO BY BANK LANGMORE — COURTESY JOHN LANGMORE
Buckaroo and Western artist Len Babb — shown here circa 1970s — will
show his work at the Sisters Fire Hall Community Room on August 5 and 6.
Western and buckaroo life as
one is likely to find.
Lance Richardson, Babb’s
nephew, who along with wife
Rebecca has been instrumen-
tal in helping bring Len’s
work to a Sisters audience,
told The Nugget: “He is a
walking encyclopedia of the
historic things of this coun-
try. He is passionate about the
buckaroo, and the cowboy
way, in a bygone era. Len’s
work is very unique and spe-
cial. I’ve seen him go through
the stages of life. He used to
ride all of the rough horses,
and now he’ll tell me, ‘I’m a
little bit scared of that one.’ It
is an incredible honor to be a
part of bringing his passion
out into the public.”
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