A Shepherd's Life Paintings of Jenny Armstrong By Victoria Crowe

A Shepherd's Life centres on Jenny Armstrong, born in 1903 at the farm of Fairliehope, who spent her life working as a shepherd in the Pentland Hills. In a series of remarkable paintings made over twenty years and based on close observation, Victoria Crowe, one of Scotland's foremost painters, pays tribute to the life and work of this exceptional woman. In spite of their different ages and backgrounds, the two women came to value each other's company and it was through the shepherd that the artist learned how to interpret the surrounding landscape. At the same time the paintings depict an ancient way of living that has been long in the decline and which, at the start of a new millennium, may be finally disappearing.

Victoria Crowe studied at the Royal College of art, London, before being invited to teach at Edinburgh College of Art in 1968. An established artist living and working in the Scottish Borders, she has had successful solo exhibitions throughout Britain and worked and exhibited overseas. She has undertaken many prestigious commissions and her work is held in important public and private collections including National Galleries.