The Shepherd at Galilee

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I was staying at a house overlooking the Sea of Galilee years ago when early one morning I saw a shepherd leading a herd of sheep going up the hillside. It was a beautiful sight with the mist on the sea and a fertile field below. Yet the shepherd was leading the flock up a high steep hill. I wondered about the sheep and how sometimes we are led to higher less fertile places.

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“OUTSIDE OUR BED AND BREAKFAST INN at Galilee, there was a sheepfold. In the morning, the shepherd came down the nearby mountain along a winding path with a cloud of sheep following in a thunderous herd. The shepherd had to walk Really fast for the herd not to run over him. As they came down below the inn you could see part of the Sea of Galilee in the background with a fertile valley to the right. Here is where the Jordan River flows again down to the Dead Sea. It is interesting
that the shepherd did not lead the sheep down to the fertile valley but up to a high, rocky landscape. I thought about that a lot and used this as the subject of these paintings. The Shepherd leads us to the high, rocky places where we would rather not go.”