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 shepherdess 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 shepherdess 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.

Genres: Art

64 pages, Hardcover

First published August 3, 1999

About the author

Victoria Elizabeth Crowe OBE, DHC, FRSE, MA (RCA) RSA, RSW (b. 1945) is an English artist known for her portrait and landscape paintings. She has works in several collections including the National Galleries of Scotland, the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Royal Scottish Academy.

Crow studied at Kingston School of Art from 1961-65 and at the Royal College of Art, London from 1965-1968. At her postgraduate show she was invited by Sir Robin Philipson to teach at Edinburgh College of Art. For thirty years she worked as a part-time lecturer in the School of Drawing and Painting while developing her own artistic practice.

Her first one-person exhibition was in London and she has gone on to have over fifty solo shows. In 2018, The Scottish National Portrait Gallery held a retrospective exhbition of Crowe's portraits, Beyond Likeness. In 019, the Edinburgh City art centre honoured her career with a retrospective, 50 Years of Painting. In 2000, her exhibition, A Shepherd's Life was one of the National Galleries of Scotland's Millenium exhibitions.

Victoria Crowe is a member of the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours. In 2009, she received an Honorary Degree from the University of Aberdeen and, in 2010, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Reviews

[Douar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful project and book.

Beautiful essays written about the rural life of Scottish farmers slowly disappearing. The incredible paintings produced during these years unveil the intimacy created between Mrs.Armstrong and Mrs.Crowe. It is incredible how a project can create inseparable relationship between the Artist and the Shepherd.

Truly moving, after being hit by a wave of nostalgia for our grandparents and villages, I truly recommended A Shepherd's Life:Paintings of Jenny Armstrong by Victoria Crowe.