 His gallery is like none other - eight walls in two rooms covered from top to bottom with beautiful paintings of Barbados. And though he admits that old houses are his favourite, the visitor's eyes are also drawn to the scenes of fishing boats on sandy shorelines, tray-laden fruit vendors in old-fashioned markets, and donkey carts stumbling down familiar county roads.
His eyes, greying with age, look out from behind thin-framed glasses - through the window with its floral curtains drawn to either side - onto the leaves of banana trees in the back yard. He speaks passionately - clearly and deliberately - about his art and about his friends who are artists as well. He believes that Barbados abounds with talent, and then draws out his scrapbook of fellow Barbadian artists to prove it. But just one glance through his studio is enough to confirm it.
Fielding Babb is arguably one of the best painters in Barbados. He has won countless awards for his work, including the Barbados Centennial Honour and the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Visual Arts while private collectors from all corners of the globe proudly hang his masterpieces on their walls.
Born in 1935, Fielding Babb attended the St. Lawrence Boys School as a lad and it was there that he first developed a love for art. This love, and natural talent, was further honed through private lessons given by acclaimed art teacher Briggs Clarke at Harrison College - one of the premier learning institutions of that day for young men. Fielding Babb was just 12 years old at that time, but his teacher, and those who sponsored the tuition (established artists Charlie Best and Golde White) saw in him then what has manifested itself on canvas today - an awesome and unspeakable talent for capturing island visions on canvas.
He paints without a brush, using a palette knife instead, and by so doing creates paintings that are almost three-dimensional in feel and texture. "I especially enjoy painting old chattel houses" he says, "the colours I see in them are endless - the older they are, the more colours I see. And I always paint on sight - drawing the scene first, and once satisfied with the drawing, I then start to paint - the blues first, then the surrounding greens, then the subject."
But though he has been an artist for over fifty years, it is only over the last decade that he has been able to dedicate his time to painting. "At 14 I took up plumbing as a trade, and then switched to harbour and shipping. There was no option to become a professional artist" he recalls, for such a career could not sustain you in those days.
Still, even as a captain of one of the island's three tugboats, The Pelican, Fielding Babb still painted on the side. And as we speak, he flips to the page in his scrapbook that shows the receipt for the 12 paintings he sold in 1978. "I received $5,400 for my paintings. I put $200 more with it, and bought my first piece of land" - this very spot on which he still lives and paints.
And Fielding Babb is very happy with the standard and direction of Barbadian art today, so much so that he dedicates countless hours to helping young artists to develop. "Our art is very bright and warm," he says, " for we look outside and we paint what we see."
And so, with oil, palette, knife, and stretched cotton canvas - old Barbados lives on in the creations of Fielding Babb.
Article written in 2004 and compliments of "Ins and Outs of Barbados" Magazine
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