An art icon’s vision

OUR island is filled with many persons who have excelled in the arts. Some of them fly under the radar while others are well known, not specifically by their work, but by the name they have made for themselves in wider Barbadian society and abroad.

Sadly we lost one of the great artists, John Fielding Carter, whom most of us know as Fielding Babb, who was laid to rest yesterday.

While the name is synonymous with outstanding talent, his is a story which like many of our icons should have been extensively documented, not only through their body of work. Born in 1935, certainly his point of view, life experiences and the evolution of his technique would have been seen on the canvas and would be an amazing story to tell.

Doing some research it was said that water colour became his speciality in the early 1970s, but his penchant for oils took over by the early 1980s. His work is a true reflection of what life is like in Barbados as he conveys this message through his techniques of short diagonal strokes. It was also noted that Babb’s trademark is a vigorous, impasto relief style, in which he applies the paint with quick strokes of a palette knife.

This writer would have met this jovial, yet humble, artist back in 2009 when he was working with a group of budding artists from the Barbados Association of Retired Persons who proudly displayed their work under his direction during an exhibition.

At that time he said the ultimate goal was to create a Barbados Amateur Watercolour Society, the first of its kind in the island. He said: “We have throughout the Caribbean watercolour societies but in Barbados, in the growing level of the arts particularly in watercolours, there are no outstanding groups that represent this genre. I think that it is time, now that we have so many persons that have retired, they would have more time to concentrate on becoming a good watercolourists and that was my idea of starting a class for BARP free of cost,” he said.

His vision was to expand the work showcased to the level of a water colour society. “A good watercolourist becomes a very good oil colourist as well. I am speaking from experience – back in the 50s and 60s I was known as a watercolourist. Back then I was painting a watercolour very thick which gave me an advantage when switching to oil. Because if you had varnished the watercolour that I had produced in the 50s and 60s it would almost look like an oil painting.”

Let’s hope that this vision is realised in his honour, recognising that in his humility, he saw the potential in persons of all ages, and could see the value of and the need to develop such an association in Barbados.