Jenny & Feeding by Victoria Crowe (b. 1945) depicts a woman carrying and tossing about what appears to be hay. The scene is captured in layered lines and washes of black, blue, and light orange-brown. Crowe creates texture through varying density and shape of linework in the artwork. The hay is in curving and haphazard lines of black and blue, while the woman's attire is in straight, thicker lines of black with blue and orange-brown washes underneath. The colour choice and textures, like the edges of the boots disappearing into the white of the paper, allow Crowe to create the wintry atmosphere in the piece. 

Jenny Armstrong, the subject of this piece, was Crowe's neighbor after moving to Kittleyknowe, southwest of Edinburgh. Jenny Armstrong was a shepherdess and is featured in a series of Crowe's other works, showing her interest in countryside life. They were close friends for 15 years before Jenny passed away in 1985. Later in 2000, an exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, titled A Shepherd's Life: Paintings of Jenny Armstrong by Victoria Crowe (and later become a published book in 2018 available through National Galleries Scotland), showed earlier works created by Crowe of Jenny Armstrong, gaining popularity and going on to seven other venues across Scotland and England. 

Victoria Crowe OBE ARSA RSW FRSE, born 1945

Born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, Crowe studied from 1961 to 1965 at Kingston School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. She has lived in Scotland since 1968, when Sir Robin Philipson invited her to become a part-time lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, where she has taught ever since. She lives in the Borders with her artist husband, Mike Walton. A painter of still lifes, interiors and landscapes, she is also an accomplished portrait painter. Among her sitters have been the Earls of Wemyss and March, Tam Dalyell MP, Tom Morgan, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and Tom Johnston, Principal of Heriot-Watt University.
Crowe's work, whether oil painting, watercolour or drawing, is instantly recognizable. Her distinctive palette and themes have been enriched by visits to Italy, Madeira, Egypt and India.