Twenty-one months

Sheep Country

Original Oil

22" X 34"

My last four paintings have been from my recent canoe trip on the Noatak River. I often feel inspired when returning from a trip, especially one of that magnitude.

But like most artists, many of my painting ideas have been rattling around in my head for months or even years. The above piece is a 21-month-er.

I was visiting my sister in Colorado Springs and we had a little bit of time to run over to Glen Eyrie in hopes of seeing the Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep which sometimes hang out on the slopes. This time we were in luck. As I stepped from her car with my camera, I think I said I wouldn't be long. After all, the bachelor herd of bighorns were in a nice group.

Hmm. About an hour later after climbing all over the hillside, I finished. Not wanting to disturb the animals meant a lot of walking and positioning. The rocks and the light kept changing and were brilliant.

Fortunately, I have a very patient sister. Now that I had hundreds of reference photos the real work began.

Some of the "work" was letting the ideas percolate.  In the back of my mind, I knew I had some pretty neat landscapes from Colorado. Every now and then I'd come across them when searching for other reference. One day, the rocks, the light, and the sheep all came together in a rough idea and I went back to those 100 or so photos.

The next task was to design the composition. The drama of the landscape spoke to me and so rather than making the animals the stars as I usually do, the Bighorns are small to make the landscape shine.