From the arena to the art gallery

When Rowdy Barry the artist paints a picture of a rodeo bull about to fling a downed rider into the air, he's not imagining the action. That's because Rowdy Barry the bullfighter has stared into those glaring eyes and felt the spray of bull slobber across his face.

Barry was in Sisters last weekend, welcomed as both bullfighter and artist. His art graced the 2008 Sisters Rodeo poster, and he took his place in the arena during the rodeo, protecting the bull riders and taking his share of knocks.

High Desert Gallery hosted a reception for Barry on Thursday, June 12, before the bumps and bruising began. The gallery had exhibited several paintings and sculptures during the lead-up to the rodeo, and the reception gave rodeo and Western art fans a chance to meet Barry and hear some stories behind the paintings.

Barry, 41, grew up on ranches; the son of a drifting cowboy and an artist mother. His mother put a paintbrush in his hand at an early age, mainly to keep him occupied through long Wyoming winters. When the weather allowed, Barry was outside, riding, running and doing all the things healthy ranch kids do. He was fascinated with bulls from an early age, awed by their sheer size and power.

By the time he reached high school, the family was living in Touchet, Washington, just outside Walla Walla. The school district was tiny, with scant resources for art, but the teacher recognized Barry's passion and put him to work helping in the middle school art room. That gave Barry opportunities to experiment and create during school time. Barry was also quite the athlete, playing and excelling at school sports.

He tried his hand at bull riding too, but said, "I got on a lot of bulls but didn't really ride very many of them."

One day at a bull riding practice, there wasn't a bullfighter, so Barry, being fast and agile, decided to give it a try. He knew right away that he'd be more successful doing that than trying to stay aboard. He worked high school rodeos and bull riding events, obtaining his professional bullfighters card during college.

Barry continued to paint in his spare time, despite the rough and tumble nature of his professional life. Eventually he began to seek out commissions for his paintings.

"That kept me fed through college," he said.

In the late 1980s Barry displayed his art at the National Finals Rodeo art show. He has participated in that show five times since.

Barry is a family man and owns a 7,500-acre ranch near Kennewick, Washington, where he and wife Laura Lee, daughter Clay, nine, and son Miles, seven, raise registered Corriente cattle. He'll continue to combine his passions of rodeo, art and ranching, letting the inspiration flow from one to the other.