The Grass is Always Greener?

I had this old board kicking around, primed, painted and coloured with a grey emulsion mixed with gesso subsequently sanded down and left. The gallery was looking a little bare and without a massive push to paint anything in particular the fallback of sheep and walls was the decided option. The view is loosely North Ribblesdale upon the track known as Goat Scar Lane leading down to Stainforth. I have painted and photographed this track numerous times in the past so I wasn’t deficient of reference material, although I was probably (rather worryingly) overawed by the amount of sheep photographs in my collection.

There is a case for narrative in this painting, I have walked  up this track and come across some escapees from the adjacent fields, these three depict the sheep from my recollections of that walk and their need for better pastures on the other side of the wall, but really are they any better off? I don’t know and I suspect neither do the sheep. As so often happens the title develops with the painting. I’m just wondering if art critics of the future depict the painting as allegorical, I suppose it is, but it wasn’t painted as such, I’m not that clever. This was painted as the standard view of the dales - sheep and walls…

The Grass is Always Greener? 12in x 12in - Oil on Panel