Painting Sheep, #2

Untitled Sheep (#2), 12"x12", acrylics on canvas © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here is the second painting in the series I'm working on of sheep.

Going through all my photographs of this flock, I found photos I took of shearing. The wool from their shearing now insulates my studio walls. So it is with gratitude and appreciation for what they have done for me, and the attachments I have to, and memories I have of, these sheep, that I work on these pieces – in addition to all the usual considerations of form, composition, color....

Painting Sheep, #1

Untitled Sheep, 12"x12", acrylics on canvas © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

This is the first in a series I'm beginning of sheep. These particular sheep were my next-door neighbors at the small ranch where I used to live. My cottage was built into part of a barn, next to their corral. My studio's back door opened into the rest of the barn, where the lambing pens stood. Not long after I moved there, lambing began, and the new mothers and their lambs were moved into the pens on the other side of my wall. Perhaps because of this, I feel a particular affection for these sheep. I have been longing to paint them since I took these photographs several years ago. Finally, it's time!