My tulips are looking a little bedraggled as the cold winds and heavy rain continue to torture them but fear not - Spring is in the air! Easter will soon be among us and every petting zoo in the land will be infested with a sea of the under sevens cuddling, some may say, half strangling a new born lamb although they don't seem to mind.
As it's not easy to get close to lambs out in the fields to draw or photograph I take advantage of my annual invitation to visit the Hollin Bank Flock. These sheep, owned by my cousin and her family are Derbyshire Gritstones and are kept as pets mainly. Well, the girls are anyway; the boys have to go, but we won't dwell on that aspect. No, breathe deeply and think Disney.
They are gorgeous and very, very friendly. Very often they are too friendly and too inquisitive so thank goodness for digital cameras otherwise I'd have a stack of close up photos of lamb faces.
Back in the studio I decide which lambs have made it through to boot camp from the X Factor finals and choose which ones I think will make good paintings. All without sad music and tears from each lamb telling me they would have given 110% and it's all they ever wanted to do. Then it's simply a case of getting on with it and painting them. Sometimes I start work on two or three at the same time when I've mixed a quantity of colour but I only work on one lamb at a time until it's complete.
Occasionally, a suitable lamb name will just appear from nowhere and often a name I originally had in mind just won't work as it's not ended up looking like a "Larry" or whatever.
In this one the name "Wonderpants" came first as someone who saw it being painted commented that they liked his fluffy trousers!
I've painted a rack of lamb(s) in the last few weeks and they've gone off to galleries to hopefully find a new home in yours.
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