Welcome ewe! I’m Ann Gadd, an artist who paints sheep, (wildlife, dogs, cats and whatever else inspires/amuses me) but mostly sheep. I also write books.
I create art that makes people laugh, which is an exceedingly fun thing to do. Every day I think up new ideas. Sometimes I send out a newsletter (about once a month) showing some of the newest paintings. I also do specialist commissions for your company or life. I’ve been a full-time artist for over 18 years now. (Before that I painted in my spare time (mostly with less humour and only a few sheep) and worked in an advertising agency. After that I freelanced and wrote for a number of publications. I also taught art, ran workshops and practiced as an alternative healer, until devoting myself full-time to art and writing.
If you want to see some of the sheep series of work I’ve done click here. Or check out my wildlife/dog series. If you want to find out more about me in general, my books or workshops as well as see a history of my art, click here
If you want to read mostly wellness related articles I’ve written, click here.
If you feel like just saying “Hi,” or want information about a commission, life the universe of anything else, feel free to email me any time. I look forward to hearing from you.
History:
I have been painting seriously since 1997. I painted my first sheep in 2001. It was called “The sheep who studied astrology.”
I enjoyed doing it, so as a result, later that year I painted a couple of versions of ‘Ambitious sheep.’ They sold, however I never really gave them too much thought, until 2006 when I had hit the creative doldrums. It was a freezing day, rain pouring down, and I kept hearing this inner voice saying “paint sheep, paint sheep,” and I’m like “yeah right people are going to want paintings of sheep!”
I painted my first two sheep in the style for which I have become known. I took them to a art gallery/dealer who loved them. I did seven more, and took them to another gallery who snapped them up. Four days later they called and said they had sold those and asked for more. It was amazing.
I often get asked: “Why sheep?” Here is my explanation:
Sheep in their inane conformist lifestyle have much to mirror to us about the human condition.
Eat, sleep, shit, toil, die for a purpose that remains beyond their (and our) deeper understanding. Like sheep we seldom stop to question our life, its purpose and the validity of what we do. Struggling to achieve a stable patch for ourselves and yet being ever threatened by the inevitable tumble downhill, in the repetitive conformism of our lives, sheep become icons for our own insanity. From their lofty phallic heights, (to which we in a post paternalistic male dominated society have raised them), sheep set themselves up for an inevitable fall.
Observing people respond to sheep paintings, I have noticed that they cut across racial, religious, gender and age boundaries – we can all relate to their (and our) absurdity in blindly following. Through Ewe, I examine the life of you/ewe the observer, and hope, through humour, to get ewe/you the viewer, to question why you do what you do.