The evolution of sheep - Did you say...?

The sheep gathered a short distance away from me and watched as I tried, not too successfully, to exit the field.

A five-bar gate, decaying at the hinges, and tied to a large stone gatepost by a chain large enough to hold an aircraft carrier defied me.

I temporarily gave up and returned the sheep's gaze.

Curious? – Yes.

It was as if they expected something to happen. Did they want food? Surely, they had enough grass to be getting on with where they were. Did the grass in the next field look greener?

Alternatively, they just enjoyed the spectacle of yet another stupid walker trying to negotiate the gate that wouldn’t budge.

The sheep eyed me. They eyed one another. They had a nibble at some tussock or other. They wondered what I was doing there. They wondered what they were doing there. They stood there and wondered.

I liked the dumb looks on the sheep’s white faces, and their surprisingly white legs. Their thick woolly coats could perhaps have done without the mud-bath and, despite the appearance of being dragged through a hedge backwards, the sheep still looked fluffy and cuddly above their spindly thin legs.

Sketches of this episode followed, and a tentative start at a watercolour but, like the sheep, the colours got muddy and I gradually lost heart. It wasn’t working.

I went on holiday.

Returning afresh, I put the watercolour through a sheep-dip - dabbing and wiping most of the mud away. A new beginning from which I could slowly build up the final picture.

Bright colours were suggested, modified, and subdued in places.

The tones broadened, and the sheep were given their thick impasto overcoats using a mix of gouache and watercolour.

Finally, their faces enlivened, they started looking, peering and querying everything.

The sheep, steadfast, but still curious and thinking about the things in life – such as grass, and more grass, and…

Oh! And who are you? “Did you say something?” Haven’t you got through that gate yet?