My friend John Verburg is another source of wonderful inspiration. As soon as I saw his image of sheep, I figured that it would be a fun exercise for the Singleton Studio.
John commented when he posted: "Farm Scene! So far one of my favourite shots of 2025."
I asked John to confirm that I could paint from this particular photograph. He had thought that it would make an interesting painting and wondered if I would want to do so. John's reply:
"For sure Phil! These sheep are on Amherst Island, I took the picture a week ago (mid-January 2025). I believe these are Suffolk Sheep."
I think John is right about the breed of the sheep. The Suffolk is a British breed of domestic sheep that originated in the late eighteenth century in the area of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. Norfolk Horn ewes were bred to improved Southdown rams. It is a polled, black-faced breed, and is raised primarily for its meat. The Suffolk is a truly pure and unique breed. The uniformity and hardiness of this breed maximizes the hybrid vigour of the progeny. The use of the Suffolk sire is preferred on maiden ewes and makes identification of cross-bred lambs easier. The Suffolk breed is the most recognized breed worldwide. It is unsurpassed in eating quality and is considered the breed for the table. The black hard feet make sure that the Suffolk sheep are built to go the distance. It has been exported to many countries and is among the most numerous breeds of sheep worldwide.
Now for the other reason why these fifteen sheep touched me. I use art as a vehicle to continue to learn and not just about painting. Mostly my interest is sparked by nature and science. Rarely am I drawn to social events. However, the political climate of 2024 and the next decade are important to understand from a scientific point of view. The following thoughts came to me while I painted and I just had to write them down to "clear the air".
In the past, I made it a point to not discuss politics, religion and the other typical taboo topics of polite conversation. The weather was always a safe "go-to" and perfect for me. However, to remain silent during these deeply troubled times is implicit acceptance. Silence is unacceptable given the blatant immorality and criminality of the political and corporate elite in the pursuit of more wealth and power at the expense of everything else. Enough is never enough. The end result of the current misdeeds must be an extended interglacial period lasting thousands of years until the extinction of mankind allows nature to heal the Earth. Think about that...
In this painting, one sheep, the Queen of the Ewes, climbed to the top of the round bale to get a better vantage. What was going on? The round bale was of excellent quality and intended to be their midday meal. In this case, it was used as a leg-up to better understand the world. She was looking to the right - from her perspective. Right-wing fascists are very dangerous to sheep.
Another ewe directly in front of the round bale looked intently to the left. Left-wing extremists are just as treacherous.
These two sheep suspected a sleight of hand and were rightfully wary. The other sheep were inspecting the photographer. They were entertained, simply chowing down and indifferent to everything but the "free lunch".
The sheep are wise to be wary but what do they do next. I should reread George Orwell's "Animal Farm". That book summary reads a lot like current events. Aldous Huxley also envisioned the future world. Carl Sagan made a forecast as well. There have been a lot of wise people making extremely learned predictions. The sheepy populace was not listening or reading.
Initially, I had intended to include the political "science" definitions of the various forms of governments - their pros and cons etcetera. Orwell and Huxley were concerned about totalitarian governments based on their experiences with Mussolini and Hitler. Totalitarianism with absolute dictatorship in the hands of one person or party controls every aspect of its politics, economy, education, and culture. An authoritarian regime concentrates power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people. Both are a far step away from democracy.
Aside from being too long and tedious, the Earth is in the verification phase of the above forecasts of future governments. I reread many of those essays but I realized that the problem is not just the politicians. The future has arrived and the root cause can be found in the sheep.
Huxley was probably closest in writing his 1932 "
Brave New World" with that populace controlled with pleasure. We are the problem - blissfully content to live generally peacefully with enough food, shelter and clothing while entertained by sitcoms, crime dramas, sports, gambling and beer. "
Only" 10 percent of the world suffers hunger. Oh my, but that is a huge number...
After hard-fought battles to secure the vote, less than two-thirds avail themselves of that privilege. Some who do, are influenced by shallow slogans, sound bites and propaganda - all biased and largely false. "A Buck a Beer" is an improbable election slogan but it worked for the Conservatives in Ontario.
Those who do cast a knowledgeable vote are vastly outnumbered. The "first past the post" method of counting is inherently flawed and unrepresentative of the reality of the populace. Political platform promises to correct that obvious and tragic flaw remain unfilled, influenced no doubt by the real power brokers.
As a result in 2025, the Earth is facing the sixth mass extinction, climate change, forest eradication and destruction of the wilderness. There is big, big money to be made by ravishing the land for fossil fuel, fish, precious metals and anything else that mankind can make a buck from in their artificial economy. Corporations continue to amass unimaginable fortunes. Even individuals are cashing in with the first trillionaire on the horizon. There are a lot of zeroes in a trillion (a dozen). Imagine the madness!
Corporations can be unscrupulously ruthless in their quest for wealth and power. They have the resources not only to purchase countries but more simply and cheaper, to buy the political structures that run them. The three pillars of government include executive, legislative and an independent judiciary. All have affordable price tags. The ultra-rich can acquire world domination just like "Dr. No" in the prophetic 1962 James Bond movie.
The problem remains with the sheep. We do not hold politicians accountable for their misdeeds and crimes. Oaths of office are quickly forgotten. Political platforms have become increasingly shallow comprised of mud-slinging ads and "vote for me because I'm not the other guy". Instead, world leaders are allowed to pocket envelopes stuffed with cash, dodge taxation, determine their own compensation and accept backroom payments for doing the bidding of wealthy constituents. During a short term in office, ostensibly in the service of the populace, their personal wealth miraculously skyrockets. Upon discovery and getting unelected (if they are caught), the criminal politicians retire to live happily ever after like fairy kings and queens on 100% plus pensions at public expense.
As a result, many former sheep seek political office not to serve and make their country and world a better place, but for personal gain. Self-entitled, narcissistic sheep without character, aspire to become wealthy wolves. The doors to the back rooms are flung wide open "ready for business" for large corporations and wealthy individuals to buy politicians.
Finding an honest politician, who possesses integrity and empathy with the best interest of the sheep populace at heart, would be wonderful. Sadly there is a general dearth of such character. In fact, a lack of empathy has been correctly labelled as "evil". That word is not nearly emphatic enough to describe destroying the only planet we have or will ever know for wealth and power wielded by the very few. We have arrived at an Earth where the wealthiest 1% of the world's population controls roughly half of the wealth - at least the wealth defined by the artificial manmade economy.
It is thus consistent that an oligarchy is the prevailing form of government. Absolute power rests with just a small number of people in an oligarchy. Totalitarianism and authoritarianism are similar and equally repulsive but these "leaders" are in it for the cash. Wikipedia summarizes:
"These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control. Throughout history, power structures considered to be oligarchies have often been viewed as coercive, relying on public obedience or oppression to exist. Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as meaning rule by the rich, contrasting it with aristocracy, arguing that oligarchy was the perverted form of aristocracy."
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| The Sanders Institute provides an apt definition |
Clearly, an oligarchy is a sinister threat to democracy. The power in government resides in the hands of those not even on the ballot. Meanwhile, the purchased minions go on the glad-handing campaign trail kissing babies, smiling for every camera and ensuring that (
taxpayer) money flows freely to their constituents before the polls open. The feigned, friendly faces circulated in the purchased media do not really contain any empathy at all. The sheep buy into the "
free" lunch and find the political campaign to be quite entertaining - a mix of gladiators in the stadium, football, tennis and mud-wrestling all rolled into a public display of distraction while the power brokers profit. Shallow slogans do not address the real issues. The people and the planet continue to pay the freight.
The power brokers and politicians employ the same techniques as Big Oil and Coal, Big Tobacco, Asbestos and more recently Opioid. The simple playbook has not changed over the centuries:
Lie, confuse, conceal, cheat, obfuscate, distract, divide and conquer.
Manipulate and control the news media and circulate misleading propaganda.
Employ lobby groups with opaque funding and influence or purchase politicians and governments while undermining facts about established science and disguising the reality of their motives.
Dithering inaction results during which the business of accumulating wealth and power can continue unimpeded, "full steam ahead". The real power players would not benefit from proportional representation so the election system remains archaic. The lack of empathy for planet Earth and all therein displays an evil that defies language to adequately describe.
The forecasts by Orwell, Huxley, Sagan and many others have verified perfectly more or less.
Decades were squandered in the efforts to curb greenhouse gases. The Earth is well on its way to becoming uninhabitable reaching temperatures at least 3°Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2300. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirms 2024 as the warmest year on record with temperatures about 1.55°C above pre-industrial level. "One-point-five" and "net-zero" were simply hollow political shams that allowed big oil corporations to continue business as normal.
The empathy-void decisions were made in the Exxon Head Offices in the 1970s. James Black, company scientist and climatologist for Exxon clearly stated that "uncontrolled fossil fuel use would cause a "super-interglacial" lasting thousands of years". It would take that long for nature to repair the Earth in the absence of people. (see "Big carbon's strategic response to global warming, 1950-2020") "Drill baby drill" remains the slogan of choice.
Please note that the above text in red is mine and is not included on James Black's original slide. I am speculating that a climatologist of his stature would make it crystal clear to the group of senior Exxon executives what "Expected Natural Cooling" meant. Carbon could only be re-sequestered if nature recovered and vegetation was allowed to flourish. Convalescence would indeed take thousands upon thousands of years in sharp contrast to the couple of hundred years of the Industrial Revolution. Humans burned and profited (and became essentially extinct) from the extraction of fossil fuels in only a geological blink of an eye. The inherent flaws of an economy that focuses on the profits from extraction while disregarding nature and the life cycle of materials could not be more obvious. Shame.
The past ten years 2015-2024 are the ten warmest years on record. Six international datasets were used to reach the consolidated WMO global figure below. 2024 was the first calendar year with a global mean temperature of more than 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average. The impacts are now clearly observable even to the most myopic of sheep.
This post makes me very sad. It is not my wish or style but sometimes the truth is ugly. I must face myself in the mirror and at least say I failed. I stopped giving Climate Change presentations in 2021. Overhead transparency slides were the first vehicle I used to display the carbon imbalance and the Elsasser Diagram. I graduated to PowerPoint in 1987 and the presentations quickly outgrew the memory of the early computers (AT1, AT2 etc). My generation of meteorologists was ineffective in influencing world leaders. Money talks much louder than science. I was preaching to the choir and the politicians and power brokers were never in the audience. Shame.
The goal of this post is to encourage the reader if there are any, to vote intelligently, read and learn and give critical thought to what you see... it might be AI and misleading at best or outright lies at worst. Be informed with real facts. Hold the feet of your local candidate to the fire and insist on proportional representation. Don't be distracted by any last-minute flow of (taxpayer) cash or the smiling faces in the media photo-op. There is no such thing as a free lunch. We must not be sheep.
Sadly concerning the climate, the long-term integral of weather, the opportunity to make much of a difference has been lost. The climate system dynamics have a lot of inertia and the tipping point consequences of melting "perma"-frost and land-ice must escalate. The science of this would fill several books to adequately describe. It would take worldwide cooperation and heroics to even tweak the trajectory of spaceship Earth.
So I sequester myself within the Singleton Sanctuary while caring for nature. The real riches of Earth can be found in the forest, quietly painting and surrounded by nature. Perhaps my art might bring solace to those with no wild place to which to retreat...
Now back to 2919 "Queen of the Castle"...
It was another wintry day outside so I was in the Singleton Studio. The wind chill turns my hands into white blocks of ice. That makes it a challenge to feel the brushes. The smooth mahogany plywood was cradled on a stretcher frame built by my father. My Dad built quite a stack of these stretcher frames from a pine post that had been the main support of the back porch of our home on 24 East Avenue, Brockville, Ontario. Waste not and want not is an important and particularly apt adage. I hope to be able to use every one of those beautiful stretcher frames in honour of my father.
For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2025.
Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,
Phil Chadwick
