The sun highlights the ridges and hard curve of their massive horns as they are sky lined against the distant blue of craggy peaks. Rocky mountain Big Horn Sheep – this is an agile creature that lives on the ridges and peaks of our Canadian mountains.
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to hike up into the mountains above Golden BC. There we found two groups of Big Horn Sheep. We first found the females and young and were able to observe them as they rested in the sun. We respected the fact that the females did not want us to approach too close and used our binoculars and photo equipment to watch them from a distance.
Several miles away we found the males and were able to climb right up with them and take the time to really study them. The males were comfortable with our presence and allowed us to approach them. It was so interesting and inspirational. Many wonderful photos resulted but most importantly was the feeling of being in the midst of them.
Two large paintings (3×5 feet) have resulted from that experience both based on the same drawings of these Big Horn Sheep. The first is an “Out of the Dark” painting called “Ram’s Ridge” with the dark charcoal coloured background with a light rendering of these rams. The second painting “Bighorn Ridge”,  is in full colour and has an entirely different feel to it.  Very interesting to create two such different paintings from the same experience. The Out of the Dark original is available and there are prints available of Bighorn Ridge.

Artist Valerie Rogers painting Big Horn Sheep