Western artist Larry Bute has made a name for himself by chronicling the lives of Great Basin buckaroos. His giant murals appear on historic buildings throughout Nevada, celebrating a unique culture in a place where people still make a living on horseback every day.
Bute began drawing horses as a Minnesota third-grader, and his talent immediately impressed his teachers. The idea of art school, though, didn't appeal to him in his younger days. Instead, the farmer's son dreamed of becoming a veterinarian or cowboy.
After high school, Bute worked a summer at a Colorado ranch, then reluctantly enrolled in the Colorado Institue of Art in Denver. After a year of study, he moved to Montana and worked as an illustrator for the federal government.
In 1977, Bute decided to take some risks to achieve what he really wanted. He left his job to pursue a career as a western artist. Among his more notable projects at the time: a series of illustrations for cowboy-gear supplier J.M. Capriola Company.
Bute's involvement in the illustrator show at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., prompted his move to the Silver State in 1988. There he continued his art career and took up the life of a Nevada cowboy, living and working on some of the Great Basin's most isolated ranches - the Big Springs Ranch, the Duckwater Cattle Company, and the Manzonie Ranch. Along the way, he pointed his art career in a new direction - capturing the working buckaroo's lifestyle.
"There weren't many people painting that life," he says. "The buckaroo thing is really specialized, and I keep learning new things. Even with all the information on buckaroo horsemanship, a lot of trade secrets are left."
Today, Bute is best known for his murals depicting Nevada cowboy life. His work appears on hotels, casinos and historic commercial buildings throughout the state. A series of murals Bute created for the Hotel Nevada and Gambling Hall in Ely received the state's Tourism Development Award.
"The challenge of painting a mural appealed to me, along with the impact you can get with something on that large a scale," he explains. "It was pretty difficult at first."
Bute says he sometimes begins a mural by drawing a smaller version to scale, then reproducing the image on a wall. The original picture might be divided into a grid; what begins as a 1-inch square sketch might become a 3-foot square on a mural.
The feedback from genuine buckaroos gives Bute a boost. His attention to detail - accurately depicting horses, tack and attire - has earned a stamp of approval from the hands who work on the ranches from which Bute draws his inspiration.
"To have good hands compliment the works is the most gratifying," he admits. "At the last National Finals Rodeo, a fellow came up to me and told me I show it the way it really is. That means a lot."
Nowadays, Bute lives in Fallon, Nev., and specializes in commercial illustrations, prints and other art projects, all with a cowboy flair.