A Sheep in Ancient Ruins: Oil Painting

An oil painting in thick impasto: a calm white sheep stands in the foreground of an archaeological site. Weathered limestone columns and crumbling arches rise behind it, with scattered stone blocks from an ancient ruin. In the midground, glimpses of archaeologists with brushes and trowels and wooden scaffolding. The scene bathed in warm golden-hour light, long shadows, ochre, burnt sienna, umber, ivory, and hints of mossy green and pale blue from mosaic fragments. The brushwork is expressive and painterly, with visible strokes on the sheep's wool and on the ancient stones, conveying a romantic, slightly impressionistic realism. Composition places the sheep on the left third, ruins receding to the right, with distant desert hills under a soft blue sky.