Every now and then I go out early on a winter’s morning to photograph the two flocks of sheep that spend the night near the house to keep their young lambs safe from predators. This was a little ewe and twins scene that I particularly liked. I decided to do it in oils this time. I love the way the lambs wait patiently for their mothers to get up in the morning so they can have their breakfast.
This is the second of my sheep challenge compositions. A group of our Afrino sheep, with a view of our farm beyond, and the Freestate hills in the distance.
Since acquiring a few canvases at a sale at the art shop in November, I have decided to do a few paintings of sheep, in oil. Here is the first one.
May our dear Lord bless your Christmas and guide you through the New Year. Lots of love to all my Family and Friends who visit this site.
“Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. ” Psalm 95, 6 & 7
This was painted for a client who is decorating his office with Guinea Fowl artwork. He already bought 2 others that were available in the bird gallery.
The EDM, mentioned in the last post, came to an end halfway through May due to this big commission. It took several weeks to complete, but it seems that the client was happy with the depiction of his shearing shed.
For the last two years I have managed to take up the EDM, The Every Day in May Challenge. It has been quite enjoyable if rather time consuming, and difficult to fit in on busy days. However, this year, I had an important big commission to start, so only completed half of the daily painting challenge. So here are the 15 paintings, it ended with the very personal sketch of my husband, John and his Grand daughter, Chloë, who share a 15th May Birthday. In April we travelled to Lambert’s Bay so several of these are inspired by scenery on that trip. The paintings appear in order of the days, from the first picture of the ewe and lamb, painted on the 1st May up till the last one, the portrait of Grandpa and Grand-daughter, on the 15th May.
In 2015 I took up the “Everyday in May” challenge, and when May 2016 rolled around, I was keen to give it another try. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, and hope you will too; while scrolling through these 31 sketches.
A little experiment with salt to achieve a different texture, on this sketch of 3 lambs.
Although I have never been overseas, John went to Europe for a year when he left school. So this was the first ‘out of Africa’ trip for me.
We decided to take the plunge, when our son, Charles and his wife Janet, had their first baby, beautiful Kayla Skye, in Edinburgh earlier this year. So armed with a new camera and high expectations we left for Scotland early in September.
The new camera worked really hard and produced a wonderful collection of over 7000 photos! But, just once in a while, I took the odd opportunity to do a few on-site sketches.
I was so inspired to paint when we got back that I picked out three favourites, to do more detailed watercolour paintings. There are others that I would like to try, but as the festive season is drawing near, I decided to stop with this little selection. It gives you a sample of the delights we found in the beautiful land of fat sheep, rolling green fields, bagpipes and tartan.
And once in a while a little rain was such a treat for us drought-hardened karoo folk!
These are the watercolours, painted since our return:
