Published: March 24, 2007 09:29 am      

Larue Barnes: Artful Cowboy

Keene painter Sleepy Read still creating masterpieces

Delbert “Sleepy” Read of Keene has been creating artwork for more than 51 years. Approaching his 86th birthday, he shows no evidence of napping at the easel.

The artist will be honored with an art show and reception from 2-5 p.m. April 1 at Carolyn and Roy Bilberry’s Art Mart at Nolan River Mall. Read’s paintings may be purchased and refreshments will be served.

Local sculptor Jeff Gottfried chose Read as a model for his most recent work that will be displayed at the reception.

Gottfried, who is sculpting a pioneer woman at the Layland Museum, especially enjoys doing Western pieces. Read’s rugged “cowboy” features caught his attention some time ago.

“Sleepy Read is a local legend,” Gottfried said. “He goes to my parent’s church, and I have long admired him as an artist and as a person. I’ve wanted to capture his likeness for a long time, and when I asked him, he was very gracious and patiently modeled for me two entire mornings. He let me keep his hat for a few more days.

“The final piece is a half life-sized bust. I tried to capture his kind eyes and his gentleness. I tried to make him smile — which was not easy with his giant mustache. The smile shows in his eyes, I think. I enjoyed getting to know him. Time just flew by and the work absolutely fell together. I’m very proud of it. Sleepy is very deserving of any accolades he receives.”

Read’s work has been shown nationwide, and his paintings and sculpture may be found in public buildings, homes and art galleries across the United States and in Europe.

He is perhaps best known locally for his paintings of bluebonnets.

“People in Johnson County mostly like my bluebonnet scenes,” Read said. “What I really like to do best doesn’t have a strong market around here.”

Those favorite media include abstract foam sculptures and “choo-choo collages” as he calls them, renditions of trains made from all sorts of junk collections.

“I pick up stuff all the time at junk yards, and I buy old costume jewelry by the sack full,” he said in an interview at his home. “I design my collages here in my workshop, and it’s good therapy for me. I don’t think about how much money I owe or my problems. In fact, I don’t have to think and make decisions on a collage like I do a painting. If the piece fits, I use it there. If it doesn’t, I save it for something else. I feel a real sense of satisfaction when the work is finished.”

An abstract painting on Styrofoam of Christ’s crucifixion was a special project of Read’s. His technique uses lacquer thinner to eat away the foam, making depressions wanted in his design, while acrylic paint and craft beads add color and texture. Shiny epoxy secures and laminates the finished work.

“You see, a landscape is a challenge, but God has already created that, and I am just copying it,” Read said. “If I do an abstract, then my work is more creative to me. It becomes something no one has ever done before.

“God has created so many beautiful abstract designs — it’s amazing. If you take a piece of petrified wood and slice it, you’ll see an abstract design there. A butterfly’s wing is another example. If you look at the entire Grand Canyon, you may not see the abstract design, but look at just a small section of a photograph of it — it’s there.”

The diversity of his work is vast. Read has also painted wall murals and set designs, and has drawn cartoons. Some of his work has a folk art look, in that it is made up of dated things that are no longer used — such as vacuum tubes used in radios.

Read created one piece that is made of wooden shingles picked up from a trash dump.

“See the difference in the textures?” he asked. “Makes you aware that this one was rained on a lot more than the others. See the charred mark here? Must have been a fire. Each one could tell a separate story. Nobody else would want this, but it brought me pleasure to make it.

“And this board right here by the door is my very favorite piece of wood in the whole place. I chose it to go right there because it has a shotgun hole in it. Makes you wonder where the wood came from and what happened.”

Read has a story of his own. He was born and raised in Lufkin, he second of six children. He was nicknamed “Sleepy” in high school because he drew and sketched a lot during classes, he said.

Read’s father was an auto mechanic who had a shop next door to their home in Lufkin. One evening he came home to eat supper. Afterwards, he went back to the shop to finish working on a car. He got his feet wet on the way back to the shop, picked up something electrical, and received a fatal shock.

Read’s mother, Ella McCoy Read, raised the six children alone and taught them the value of hard work.

Sleepy’s brother Bill, of Miami, Fla., explained, “Mother was a maverick of sorts, in that she supported the family by selling Avon cosmetics when most Adventist ladies would not use them. She also worked in the school cafeteria and even sold cars. Different people offered to adopt some of us, but she wouldn’t allow it.”

Bill Read, also an artist, admired his older brother’s drawing talents at an early age.

“I realized how very good Sleepy was when he was chosen to draw each of the division pages in his high school yearbook. I remember looking at that book over and over when I was a child. I copied his work well into college.”

After high school graduation, Sleepy worked as a sheet metal worker in Lufkin while beginning to paint in oils and do metal sculptures.

“When the Hemisfair came along in San Antonio, I took a chance and went down there to do sidewalk paintings outside the Hilton Hotel,” he said.

The public’s reaction to his work changed the direction of his life.

“People liked my work,” he said. “I found I could make a lot more money painting pictures than I could at my old job. I got a studio there at the Hilton and stayed for another year after the Hemisfair ended.”

That was the beginning of his commissioned work.

Locally, he has done historical paintings of Keene that hang in the museum at Southwestern Adventist University. A large bluebonnet scene is in the library there, while a metal sculpture of three 30-feet-tall angels stands outside the Findley Building. Cleburne High School boasts a metal sculpture of a yellow jacket in its Commons Area.

Several years ago, the owner of a retirement center in Fort Worth commissioned Read to do several abstract paintings for her, and paid him $400 to $600 for each one. The building’s décor was built around the colors in the paintings, and his work became the focal point of the rooms.

Read smiled when he told a story about the fate of those paintings.

“Later, a man from Fort Worth called me and said he had two of my paintings. He asked, ‘Are they worth anything?’

“Then he told me that a new owner of the retirement center didn’t like the paintings and had replaced them with furniture store pictures. He had given my work away, and this man had gotten two of them.”

In good humor, Read told the man to hold on to them, and added, “After I’m in the ground, they might be worth something.”

Read has given art lessons for years.

“When I go to the Cleburne Art Guild meetings I notice that many of the members there have been my students,” he said. “That makes me feel good that they are still using their talent.”

He said that one of the most satisfying jobs he ever had was that of art therapist at the previous Odyssey Harbor Residential Treatment Center in Keene.

“I was kind of like W.C. Fields when it came to somebody else’s children. I wasn’t too fond of them. Well, these children were different. They loved me so much. From 1992 until 1996, when they closed the place, I taught them art, built things for them — and they taught me a lot more than I taught them.”

Read said their artwork reflected the abuse the children had endured.

“They drew jails, police cars, bars, homes with no doors. They would have windows, but no doors.

“There were some of the younger ones that I would’ve loved to have adopted. It broke my heart when they took them away. I often wondered what happened to them.”

Family is important to Read. He speaks proudly of his two sons, Martin and Stylle, and his one grandchild, Savannah. He’s quick to note the accomplishments of his sister, Betty Ann Price, and his brother, John Read, both of Keene; his brother Wally, of Henderson, and his brother Bill. One sister, Clarice, is deceased.

Through the years he has worked on carpentry renovations with Martin, climbing, reaching and lifting heavy boards. He has created happy environments for children by painting murals on the interior walls of Cleburne elementary schools. He no longer climbs up on scaffolding, but paints where he can reach from the ground or floor.

John Read says his brother’s artwork is better than ever.

“I have a real estate office in Keene,” he said. “For seven years I’ve had Sleepy’s paintings on the wall where my clients can enjoy them. Many of them have chosen his work for their new homes.

“When we moved our Read-Billingsley Real Estate to 300 S. Old Betsy Road in Keene, across from First State Bank Texas, we added a Sleepy Read gallery. Sleepy comes in every day to tend his exhibit. We’d like to invite people to come in to see his paintings.

“I continue to be amazed at the quality and the variety of my brother’s work.”

Sleepy said, “Sometimes when I wake up in the mornings, I don’t want to get up. But I have to — there are so many projects I’ve started that I want to finish. I can’t imagine anyone sitting around, just talking and drinking coffee. That’s just not the way I am.”

The artist doesn’t think he has a remarkable talent. He just likes to do art, and calls it the product of genes, hard work, patience and consistent perseverance.

If someone doesn’t like his work, he understands. He smiled mischievously, stroked his mustache, and admitted, “I create more for myself, anyway.”



Larue Barnes’ book “They Were There: Texas Veterans Remember World War II,” are available by calling 817-645-9226. She may be reached at laruebarnes@yahoo.com.