The Rural Art of Peter Andrew Jones | Just Looking

Hazler and Ragleth Hill South Shropshire

ORIGINAL DRAWING

Original £600
16x30 inches (41x78 cm)

Framed £650
16x30 inches (41x78 cm)
About "Artist" Frames

LIMITED EDITIONS

All prints come
"ready to hang"
in handmade
hand-embellished
"Artist's Frame"

Print £150
6x12 inches (15x30 cm)
+ frame

Print £099
9x19 inches (23x48 cm)
+ frame

Print £066
6 x 12 inches (15x30 cm)
+ frame

Print £018
6 x 12 inches (15x30 cm)
+ frame

About "Artist" Frames

If, like us, you have been, or are, a "City dweller" then sheep are not perhaps something you'd think especially interesting for an Artist to draw, until you happen upon the breed historically known as, the "Shropshire" (as it is now known) of native black-faced variety originally known as "Longmynd" (relating to the legendary Longmynd Hill (or Mound/Mountain) at the back of our studio) but they are truly magnificent creatures with "attitude" and, as an artist known amongst other things as being brilliant at "characterisation" it is then more obvious why he might decide upon a series of sheep drawings. Certainly, upon moving to Shropshire from Wimbledon, it was "a culture shock" especially visually, but not in anything but a positive way, creatively.

Research states the breed became known by the name "Shropshires" in 1848. This now rare breed apparently evolved in the eighteenth century from the native sheep of the county of the same name in what is now the West Midlands of England and historically known as "The Marches". It seems one version of its evolution is that two original breeds contributed the most to the makeup of the Shropshire as we know it today, the Longmynd from what is now The Shropshire Hills and Welsh border counties, and the "Morfe Common sheep" originally found in a restricted area approximately sixteen hundred hectares alongside the River Severn, a breed referred to then as “the pride and boast of Shropshire”.

That's as maybe, and we are not experts on sheep lineage, but we can attest that "Mynd sheep" around the studio today are are often black-faced and evoke visual response in The Artist and we learn from farmer friends that horned sheep are apparently typical of hill and mountain breeds. The Morfe variety of history also had small horns and speckled or dark faces and legs and had been recognized from as early as 1300 and this cross-breed produced the Shropshire wool known as the choicest and dearest in England. In 1694 wool from this county was described as "not to be equaled in its kind, by any part of the world." (At that time the Merino was almost unknown outside Spain, arriving in Britain 1791.)

The drawing is in Goldpoint, 22 Carat Gold wire held between two wooden sticks, in the ancient manner of the Renaissance Artists, and is rendered on cotton rag primed with a studio-made crushed eggshell ground prepared in the manner of antiquity, in a mortar and pestle (a tool used to crush, grind, and mix substances - the pestle is a heavy stick whose end is used for pounding and grinding, and the mortar is a bowl) and the eggshells are ground between the pestle and the mortar until fine and then made into a ground by the admixture of rabbit skin glue.

Metalpoint (typically in Silver but also in Copper or Gold) allows for no "rubbing out or reconsideration" and so exceptional skill is required to "render it once only" but what it lacks in flexibility it makes up for in its wonderful qualities of subtlety, fine delicate shading and beautiful sheen, and the additional quality it displays when the metal, exposed to the air, oxidizes and darkens with age.

But back to the subject itself: it seems argument still runs as to whether the current breed are direct descendants of the ancient sheep of Shropshire, bred to be a better and better strain though selective feeding methods down the years, or rather that they are a successful cross-breed from selected mating of the best from the old native breeds of the two counties of Staffordshire and Shropshire, which adjoin each other, while yet another theory is that it is a result of crossing Southdowns, Leicesters and Cotswolds with the native black-faced Longmynd. It is maintained that Southdown rams were used to breed out the coarseness and horns of the original sheep while Leicester and Cotswold blood improved the length of the wool and gave size to the sheep and these various elements became fused to became known by the name it now bears, in 1848. Yet further, some argue that the modern Shropshires are descended from the Cannock Chase breed known as the "Whittington Heath Sheep."

In any event, the new breed rapidly became extremely successful even being exported to Virginia in the USA somewhere around 1855 though by the 1980s it had fallen out of favour in Britain and was officially considered a Rare Breed with only 500 to 800 breeding ewes.

Folklore, farmer's boasts and bragging, lost records, faulty memories, and the sheer passage of time and assumption-making, who can say for sure, but certainly, around our studio, up on the hills opposite, the haughty black faced Rams look decidedly in charge of the pathways they block when we walk, with sketchbook and notebook in hand.

They may, perhaps, be "just looking" but you definitely don't want to argue the right of way forward in the mating season . . . . . . .

BOOKS

CARDS


ORIGINAL DRAWING Original £600 16x30 inches (41x78 cm) Framed £650 16x30 inches (41x78 cm) About "Artist" Frames LIMITED EDITIONS All prints come "ready to hang" in handmade hand-embellished "Artist's Frame" Print £150 6x12 inches (15x30 cm) + frame Print £099 9x19 inches (23x48 cm) + frame Print £066 6 x 12 inches (15x30 cm) + frame Print £018 6 x 12 inches (15x30 cm) + frame About "Artist" Frames	If, like us, you have been, or are, a "City dweller" then sheep are not perhaps something you'd think especially interesting for an Artist to draw, until you happen upon the breed historically known as, the "Shropshire" (as it is now known) of native black-faced variety originally known as "Longmynd" (relating to the legendary Longmynd Hill (or Mound/Mountain) at the back of our studio) but they are truly magnificent creatures with "attitude" and, as an artist known amongst other things as being brilliant at "characterisation" it is then more obvious why he might decide upon a series of sheep drawings. Certainly, upon moving to Shropshire from Wimbledon, it was "a culture shock" especially visually, but not in anything but a positive way, creatively. Research states the breed became known by the name "Shropshires" in 1848. This now rare breed apparently evolved in the eighteenth century from the native sheep of the county of the same name in what is now the West Midlands of England and historically known as "The Marches". It seems one version of its evolution is that two original breeds contributed the most to the makeup of the Shropshire as we know it today, the Longmynd from what is now The Shropshire Hills and Welsh border counties, and the "Morfe Common sheep" originally found in a restricted area approximately sixteen hundred hectares alongside the River Severn, a breed referred to then as “the pride and boast of Shropshire”. That's as maybe, and we are not experts on sheep lineage, but we can attest that "Mynd sheep" around the studio today are are often black-faced and evoke visual response in The Artist and we learn from farmer friends that horned sheep are apparently typical of hill and mountain breeds. The Morfe variety of history also had small horns and speckled or dark faces and legs and had been recognized from as early as 1300 and this cross-breed produced the Shropshire wool known as the choicest and dearest in England. In 1694 wool from this county was described as "not to be equaled in its kind, by any part of the world." (At that time the Merino was almost unknown outside Spain, arriving in Britain 1791.) The drawing is in Goldpoint, 22 Carat Gold wire held between two wooden sticks, in the ancient manner of the Renaissance Artists, and is rendered on cotton rag primed with a studio-made crushed eggshell ground prepared in the manner of antiquity, in a mortar and pestle (a tool used to crush, grind, and mix substances - the pestle is a heavy stick whose end is used for pounding and grinding, and the mortar is a bowl) and the eggshells are ground between the pestle and the mortar until fine and then made into a ground by the admixture of rabbit skin glue. Metalpoint (typically in Silver but also in Copper or Gold) allows for no "rubbing out or reconsideration" and so exceptional skill is required to "render it once only" but what it lacks in flexibility it makes up for in its wonderful qualities of subtlety, fine delicate shading and beautiful sheen, and the additional quality it displays when the metal, exposed to the air, oxidizes and darkens with age. But back to the subject itself: it seems argument still runs as to whether the current breed are direct descendants of the ancient sheep of Shropshire, bred to be a better and better strain though selective feeding methods down the years, or rather that they are a successful cross-breed from selected mating of the best from the old native breeds of the two counties of Staffordshire and Shropshire, which adjoin each other, while yet another theory is that it is a result of crossing Southdowns, Leicesters and Cotswolds with the native black-faced Longmynd. It is maintained that Southdown rams were used to breed out the coarseness and horns of the original sheep while Leicester and Cotswold blood improved the length of the wool and gave size to the sheep and these various elements became fused to became known by the name it now bears, in 1848. Yet further, some argue that the modern Shropshires are descended from the Cannock Chase breed known as the "Whittington Heath Sheep." In any event, the new breed rapidly became extremely successful even being exported to Virginia in the USA somewhere around 1855 though by the 1980s it had fallen out of favour in Britain and was officially considered a Rare Breed with only 500 to 800 breeding ewes. Folklore, farmer's boasts and bragging, lost records, faulty memories, and the sheer passage of time and assumption-making, who can say for sure, but certainly, around our studio, up on the hills opposite, the haughty black faced Rams look decidedly in charge of the pathways they block when we walk, with sketchbook and notebook in hand. They may, perhaps, be "just looking" but you definitely don't want to argue the right of way forward in the mating season . . . . . . .	BOOKS CARDS