#449- A Soft Spot For Sheep

#449- Oil on board by Greg Newbold

If you have followed my blog, you will no doubt remember a few other paintings I have done involving sheep. Growing up, I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with these creatures. Our family homestead where my widowed great aunt lived always had sheep and as she had no children, we took care of them for her much of the time. For a time in my teen years, it was my daily chore to feed, water and otherwise monitor the animals. I didn't always love taking care of the sheep, especially in bitter cold weather, but I loved visiting with my Aunt Mame. These are not her sheep, but they represent the memories I cherish from that time in my life. See some of my previous sheep themed paintings below.

Aunt Mame's Sheep
Winter Coats
Unburdened
Penned In

Aunt Mame's Sheep- In Progress

This is a portrait of the sheep that I helped take care of for many years as a younger person. As I outlined in an earlier post, We had a family homestead which my Great Aunt Mame owned and where we had countless parties. On this land, my Aunt kept animals in order to maintain an agricultural zoning.

 I did a previous painting of these sheep in winter time and the owners of that painting, my Aunt and Uncle have now commissioned me to paint one in springtime. Here it is in progress which I figure as somewhere between halfway and two thirds finished. I am liking it so far. I'll post the final version when I the last strokes go on.