Sentry

Last weekend I spent a few days in South Australia, painting at Jacqueline Coates' gallery Salon Rouge in the small and peaceful township of Kapunda. The town is between the Barossa and Clare Valleys, both fine wine-making regions in that state.

While at Salon Rouge I did some encaustics painting, starting a new direction that I am researching and planning to pursue, paintings inspired by the Imperial Palace in China. Here is a pic of me working on some of the encaustics paintings I have started (also see previous post below for some examples). Salon Rouge has a great set up for the encaustics and many more colors than I have in my smaller home studio space.

It was also fantastic to catch up with other artists there and learn what they are working on. There is a great exhibition on the walls of the gallery at the moment. 'Reclaimed' explores art made from recycled and salvaged materials. Absolutely awesome stuff ! Check out the landscapes painted on wine barrel lids by Deb Hilditch, and sculpture compositions made from old tin ceilings by Ilona Glastonbury, and much more. See www.salonrougegallery.com for more info on this current exhibition.

When leaving Kapunda to return home, I stopped to photograph some of the local landscapes. The area has had a lot of rain lately, breaking a previous drought. It has really greened up nicely. I saw some sheep and decided a landscape with them might be nice, I stopped by the side of the road and began to photograph them, using a nice optical zoom I have on my new small camera. There were ewes with new lambs, and all the sheep seemed peacefully grazing in the afternoon sunlight. All was well and good in their world. Then ! One sheep, at the top of the hill, noticed me and decided I was too close I guess. I think he was their Sentry. He let out a very loud bleating call and all the sheep close to the fence line turned and ran away !! When they were far enough from me and the fence, they resumed their grazing, and Sheep Sentry kept an eye in my direction, to be sure I kept at a suitably safe distance.

I had not meant to disturb or bother the grazing animals, but guess they felt I was too close for safety. I did get a few more photos of the sheep, relying more on the zoom than I had wanted...but oh well. Then I headed back to the car for my drive back to the airport. Still, a good afternoon and now I have running sheep in pasture to add to my photo library !