A Ewe and her two babies, A mother sheep and her two lambs

Mother Ewe and her two baby Lambs

This is a painting I finished very recently.  I created it from photos kindly lent to me by a sheep and goat farmer who lives near me.  I'm not mentioning her name because I didn't ask for permission.  But I do thank her.

I've finally started doing many of my paintings in oil.  I love how it flows, but I'm still having a problem with messing areas I've already painted because it dries much more slowly than acrylic paints do.  I think, too, that the colors are more true after the painting has dried.

Oregon State Fair

The empty horse arena.  It's an amazing building.

A beautiful sheep who is going to be in a painting soon.  I'll have to find out what kind she is.

A llama with attitude!

We took a break from everything yesterday and went to the Oregon State Fair, in Salem.  It's been something we've done since we moved here to Portland 20 years ago last month, so it has become quite an established tradition.  It was the first time we've gone on the opening day, so there wasn't much going on.  The upside, though, is that all the exhibitors were fresh, not jaded; the animals were clean and not bored out of their minds yet (though a bit frightened at being in a new place), and the entire place was nice and clean.  The big downside was the horse arena, where we go every year to see the same horses, the same wagons, the same everything -- and nothing was happening!  We saw a few miniature horse competitions, some with only one entrant - who always got "first place" - and that was about it.  We ate the same treat as we do every year, a caramel apple, but this year my little granddaughter shook things up a bit:  she bought some cotton candy, which everyone tasted and everyone except her, of course, complained that it just didn't taste the way it used to.  We all got way, way too much sun, walked -- no, ambled -- way, way too much -- and had a great, great day!  I've attached a few photos I took, some of which will become paintings.              

A brown Swiss Cow that I think will become a painting!

American Coopworth Sheep Painting on Green background

This is an 11x14x3/4" acrylic painting of an American Coopworth sheep that I just finished.  Hope you like it.  It's looser than I usually paint, and for me, that's really a good thing.  I think I built up the form of the animal better by seeing and "feeling" the weight of the wool on its body.  It was a good painting day.


The American Coopworth sheep is a breed that was introduced into the USA in the 1970's from its original country of New Zealand. Its wool is especially valued by hand-spinners.  This sheep's portrait, my first painting of a sheep, was a pleasure to paint, and I gave it as much body and weight as I could manage on a two-dimensional surface. I'm looking forward to painting more sheep in the next few weeks. 

Chocolate Miniature Pinscher

Here's a minpin painting I just finished for a friend.  His name is Kaiser, and he's a chocolate and tan miniature pinscher.  I'm pretty satisfied with it, but the photos I had to work from were not very clear, but they were all that were available as Kaiser has passed on.

I'm now working on a painting of a sheep - yes, a sheep.  I'm still trying from time to time to include some farm animals in my repertoire, and I took a trip to several farms around Tillamook, on the Oregon Coast and climbed down embankments and risked getting shocked by hot fences to get photos of these critters, so by golly, I'm going to do some paintings of them.  It was a fun trip, though.  I had no idea that cows and sheep were so varied in their appearances -- it's a whole new educational direction for me.  I'll post it in a few days.