Like Joseph Farquharson

It will soon be Christmas. Indeed, the supermarket I walked through yesterday already had on display cakes, puddings and tins of chocolates and biscuits in preparation. (Perhaps because Christmas is more affordable when its cost is spread out over a few months.)

Over many years I have seen (and received) Christmas cards with paintings of winter scenes made by the Scottish painter Joseph Farquharson (1846-1935). His paintings of sheep - done, I understand from hides he constructed not to disturb the animals - are particularly popular and I particularly like these. The emotions they evoke are deep and have a poignancy that befits the time of year. (A collection of his paintings can be seen online at the BBC's Your Paintings site.)

Here is a photograph I took last winter that is in a similar vein to (but nowhere near as good as any of) Farquharson's sheep pictures.