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Lot Essay
Highland Sheep is a delightful example of Mary Fedden's fascination with painting anecdotal scenes of day-to-day events involving figures and animals in the landscape. The foreground of this painting depicts a shepherd resting on a gate as he watches over his flock. Both the closely packed sheep and the benign shepherd are depicted with intense compassion, and Fedden has found a timeless beauty in this image of ordinary farm life.
Fedden has also responded to the landscape and the animals with great sensitivity. In the middle distance another flock of sheep graze on the dunes. While the title, sea and mountainscape of the painting seem to define the locale in the Scottish Highlands, the pastoral scene may relate to Fedden's experience of her step-son's sheep farm in North Yorkshire. Meanwhile, the shepherd's red hat and the texture of the stone wall betrays her fascination with surface patterns in her pictures, and calls to mind her planar stil lives.
Fedden has also responded to the landscape and the animals with great sensitivity. In the middle distance another flock of sheep graze on the dunes. While the title, sea and mountainscape of the painting seem to define the locale in the Scottish Highlands, the pastoral scene may relate to Fedden's experience of her step-son's sheep farm in North Yorkshire. Meanwhile, the shepherd's red hat and the texture of the stone wall betrays her fascination with surface patterns in her pictures, and calls to mind her planar stil lives.