BACK AT IT...

After being away from painting for about 6 months I am back at it and feeling like painting is all I want to do!

When I say I was away from painting, what I mean is I hadn't attempted a large 'serious' painting.

The reason for this was I just had lost any urge to paint. I was still doing the odd 6 x 8 " little ones ...but they are simple and do not require too much thought or effort.

I was still creating the e-book's which required me to paint a picture...and running my 'paint parties' which also require me to produce a painting.

I was basically an artist that didn't paint!!

People would introduce me as 'the artist' and inwardly I would smile and think ...if they only knew!

I was busy doing other things like setting up my shop in Childers, and travelling all round the country teaching so I didn't really have time to dwell on this predicament.

But it was there, eating away at my insides.

I just kept pushing it away.

I sure as hell didn't want to consider that I might never get the inspiration to paint again.

 I was running round dishing out inspiration to all and sundry but my pot of creativity had hit the road and left!!

Then about 3 weeks ago I woke up one morning and thought ..OK it's time to get back into it.

I have my studio set up in my shed and it had sat there waiting for me for the 6 months and was looking like it needed a good overhaul.

So I got in and cleaned and throw out rubbish and hung paintings and things on the walls, sorted out my paints, found all the unused canvases I had stacked away from sight...so that they wouldn't look at me and ask why!.

It took all day to get it up and running again. But oh what a feeling when it was done...I could feel the creative juices start to stir.

Then it was back to the age old question always faced by artists ...what do I paint. Well I have been telling other artists how to overcome procrastination ...so I just thought ..practise what you preach Sandy!!

A friend had asked me why I don't paint guinea fowls...So I thought thats what I will do.


So I put a canvas on my easel and away I went.

How good did it feel ? ...It felt amazing and that guinea just fell out of me.

I was back!

This is my comeback painting

Until next time..

http://sandymcleantheoutbackartist.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/i-love-old-photos-and-history.html

A message to my blog readers

Hi everyone.  Thank you for your continued support of my online efforts, talking about life both in the studio and on the land.  You inspire me to continue writing and painting more than you know.  

I'm writing to let you know that as part of the new website and future release of my iPad app, I'm moving this blog to the brand new Outback Artist website.  All the blog posts found here along with your comments have already moved to the new website.  

I ask that you update your bookmarks to my newly updated website athttp://www.theoutbackartist.com.au.  

See you there!

Thanks again.

Sandy McLean, The Outback Artist.

YOU CAN TEACH OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS

I have been wanting to share this news for some time.
Over the past 6 months I have been working on creating my own App.
It has been a HUGE learning curve to say the least. But I think I can safely say that

 Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks......

The App icon 

The App will teach people to draw....I do believe that EVERYONE CAN DRAW. With this in mind I will show people how they can draw ANYTHING.

Like I said in my past couple of posts...I'm now into telling the story...so let me tell the

 STORY OF THE APP

Last year I was commissioned to do a drawing, I was having some trouble 'getting it right' it was a rather unusual view point for this particular subject. My husband was being used as a critic. I would do a bit of the drawing then show it to him and ask if it looked right...sometimes an artist needs someone to look at things with fresh eyes. Each time I showed him he would say it wasn't quite right. It was actually a drawing of a horse and having been round horses all my life, I know that the horse has to be right because people know their horses like they know their children.

But for the life of me I couldn't master it. I eventually decided to use the old try ed and true method of the grid pattern. For those that don't know this method it is where the artist draws up a grid on to the paper and the same sized grid on to the image they are trying to draw. Then they just copy each square of the image on to drawing their paper.

When I showed this to the husband he had never seen this method used by me before and was a little intrigued.

Some time later he said to me ..You should do an App that shows people how to draw using the grid method. My first reaction was

 ...A What??

I only had a vague idea what an App was...well that's probably not quite true ...I actually had no idea what an app was.

I wondered how the husband knew what an App was ...considering he is almost unable to turn on a computer let alone operate one!!
But he listens to the radio a lot when he is working and he had heard someone talking about Apps and I suppose the idea came to him. Of course because of this, if the App is a success he will take ALL the credit!! :)

After some convincing I thought well it can't be that hard.

Lets just say ....it has been hard.....maybe if I had any idea what an app was before I started......

For anyone out there thinking about doing this.....the first requirement is to EDUCATE yourself ....don't just drive in at the deep end like I did.

I spent weeks trying to work out how to actually teach people how to do this....at the same time I didn't have a huge budget so it all had to be very simple for the developers.... meaning the internal workings of the app had to not have too many bells and whistles ....I think I went through a couple of sketch books drawing up ideas. In hind site I should have trawled the App store and found a prototype app that I could use to base the operation of my app on.

SIMPLE

...then I could have said to the App developers...here's what I want my app to look like .....just make me the same type as this.

Instead I eventually worked out how to do the 'lessons' and then Goggled App Developers. Told them what I wanted to do...or should I say Tryed to explain what I wanted......

Right here was where the real problems started......It was like speaking to a person from another country who has never even heard ENGLISH before.....don't get me wrong it was the same for them as it was for me...

We eventually came to an agreement on both design and budget and they started building the 'frame work' and I went back to drawing up my 'lessons'

I might add at this point that I am NOT very good with computers....in fact I think the Developers couldn't quite believe just how useless I was. After a while they started to talk to me in a very slow way ...like you would a child. I wasn't offended by this ...it actually helped me to take in what they were trying to explain.

An example from one of the pages of a lesson on drawing this Giraffe.

Now because of my computer skills or lack of... I did the lessons in a very basic way...
I would start a lesson and each stage of the lesson...or progression of the drawing I would explain what I had just done by writing on a strip of paper then placing the paper on to the drawing, I would then take a photo with my ipad.

Very labour intensive indeed.

When this was all finished I realised that the concept was good but I needed the overall App to look professional. I know that this was quite beyond me. At this point I came to a stand still, the producers offered to do some 'graphic desigh' but after seeing their efforts I realised I needed more...I needed a person who understood what I was doing ...a person who believed in it and who was really creative...after all this was an Artists App so it needed to look ARTY.

By sheer luck or just being in the right place at the right time...I found my man!!

I had gone to the Mac Choice shop for some training, the tutor and I got to talking and she mentioned her husband was into graphic design and was also a photographer amongst other things. He sounded perfect....so we got together, he loved what I was doing and in no time saw what was need and got to work. Grateful doesn't even start to explain how I felt. Looking back I probably would have given the whole thing away if he hadn't shown up.


He has also become the go-between man with the App producers, which has been a tremendous weight lifted off my shoulders.

So as I write all is coming together just as it should. Hopefully with all the little bits and pieces that Aaron has suggested to make the whole thing sing, we will end up with a very beneficial and pleasure giving App that will help lots and lots of people get back in touch with their creative side!!

Until next time

HECK TICK

It's been HECK TICK round here lately.
In mid March I received an email from a New York Gallery, at first I thought it was one of those prank emails that come through every now and again, after reading it 3 or 4 times it sounded better and a little more believable.
So I eventually did what all good researchers do I googled it....and there it was as large as life ...completely 'ridgy didgy' as we say here in Australia.

 I didn't quite know what to do as still a part of me said...'as if '...another part said... well ..stranger things have happened.....but after I dwelled on this for about 2 seconds I realised that nothing that strange was springing to mind.

You see this came completely out of the blue...I hadn't sent off random requests for gallery representations to the US of A. I did do that last year ....I sent out 10 Cd's with self addressed return envelops included to Gallery's in Brisbane Sydney and Melbourne on the off chance that one of them might give me a second look.
 No such luck.
 I received 2 replys ( by email CD's not returned.)
 One from a Gallery in Brisbane which said they liked my work but didn't think it would fit in with the other work in their Gallery.
 No sure what that meant.
 The other said I basically needed to pull my head in and do a lot more work....maybe find a style...before I came back to them...this Gallery was in Melbourne. So of course I did what I always do with rejection....I slunk away with my tail tucked firmly between my legs and licked my wounds for a week or 2 then told myself to build a bridge and I continued on.

So here right before my eyes was a person called Mary who had the  title of Gallery assistant, asking me ...if I would like to put in a portfolio of my work for possible gallery represention....!!!!
Lets by pass Australia and go straight to the art centre of the world.

Since then it has been a rollercoaster ride with putting together and submitting a portfolio....waiting for what seemed like for ever for their acceptance.
Now they want work to go up on their on-line gallery...pronto!! (Australian for straight away)

Lucky I can do Pronto as I'm a pretty fast painter and I seem to be having a win with the stuff I'm pushing out right now....it is just the most amazing feeling to know that I'm painting for THE WORLD now and that the stuff I do has been looked at and 'seen' and accepted....I am soo grateful.

So moving on ...as I said in my last post I'm going to tell THE STORY of each and every painting or drawing I do from now on..so here goes

Painting Number 1

WHY

This is called " Guman", which is Aboriginal for Grandfather.I saw this black and white photo in a book that I found amongst a lot of old books I inherited from my mother's family. These relatives were two old aunts who were great readers. Their home library was very large and had some wonderfully interesting books. When it came time to share up this collection amongst myself and my sister's, I some how ended up with this amazing old book, the author was a man who had ventured out into the Simpson Desert to live and record the way of life of the Aboriginal people. He also took many great photos.

For some reason I find these old Aboriginal's so amazing...their faces are so interesting and so unlike any white face you will ever see. I have so much respect of them and for their love of the land and feeling for it. I also want to show people just how magnificent they were...so proud and strong.

This old man is to me truly magnificent ....I love how he is looking away into the distance...as I was painting him I was wondering what he was seeing.
The interesting thing about this work is it took me no time and the compulsion to paint it was very very strong.....strange as it may seem... some times I think the subject picks me and then helps me through the process...especially this one.

HOW


Before I started I had an idea that I would paint it with the one basic colour..Payne's Grey...which is a colour I love and use a lot, it is very versatile. But I started with another colour or a blended colour which I don't use much at all ..called Black/ Brown. I also put out some white and some cadmium red on my palette, other of my favourites.

So off I went.

 All I did was add the white to make the various tones of the black/brown, then added some red to the mix every now and again. The eye was very quick and all it is just the full strength Black Brown in the centre and a tiny touch of watered down white in just the right place... got it right first time...pure accident.

You can see that I added some straight red to his cheek and other small bits here and there... I just thought this would bring out these areas and also add some lift and drama to the whole thing.

I knew that it didn't need a back ground and that the stark white  and clean canvas that surrounded this old man was in direct contrast to him and his world.

And that is pretty much it.

This was also a painting that I knew without  doubt, when it was finished.
It was also one of the very very few paintings I know is good...or as good as I can achieve at this stage of my learning and development as an artist.
It was also a painting I needed to do at the time I did it. The reason for this is, I was feeling a little artistically inadequate and wondering what on earth I should paint for the New York Gallery....and out comes this painting...it answered these two nagging doubts straight away....you can do it, you are good enough and this is what you should do....
Life just blows me away sometimes.

Hence THE STORY is complete.

THE STORY

I showed a painting to some prospective buyers recently.

They woooed and areeeed and said how lovely it was......and went away and didn't come back...in other words the work just didn't 'touch' them enough for them to want to part with their well earned money.

Some time later they explained why they didn't like the piece....it was then that I realised that they actually hadn't understood what the painting was all about.

I was completely shocked when I realised this.

As an artist I automatically thought that the reason for creating the work would be obvious to the viewer.

 I'm not sure why I thought this, but I did.

I now realise how naive I have been. I now also know that things have to be explained....people have to know and understand  THE STORY behind what ever it is they are looking at.

In a way showing a painting with out explanation is a little like trying to sell a book with out a cover...it's just another boring book.

For me though the hard part is actually knowing what has happened in the process of creating the painting.
It may sound rather silly that I am suggesting that I do a work of art with out knowing exactly what I'm doing!

Well to me it does SEEM like I don't know what I'm doing...because I just do it!

 There is not a lot of thought going into it.

Getting back to THE STORY and telling the story of a painting...because I don't really know what I'm doing I do find it very hard to TELL someone about the creation of a work...

So with the last few paintings I have done, I have made a conscious effort to take notice of my thoughts....seems weird I know.

Today I was painting and I realised that I wasn't thinking at all ...I was just doing.

 But every now and again I will step back from the work and sit on my stool and just have a good look at the painting and what's happening.

 This is when I think,
 I think....

I will take note of what looks OK and what looks like sh..t and I will think about how to fix it...or I will say to myself that all looks OK ....a then I will make a few decisions on how I will continue. After mix a bit of colour or what ever and I start again I really do think that's when the thinking stops.

 I am actually getting off the subject a little now...so lets get back to trying to sell a painting and the prospective purchaser doesn't get it.

This is a very interesting thing...myself (artist) says well too bad someone else will see what I'm getting at ...I then say to my self that this painting is not meant for this person and as far as I'm concerned that's the end of that.

But my husband and others say that is not the case at all ...it is up to me as the creator of this work to explain to them so that they do understand and they then go AHHH!! now I see.!!

I probably think both of the above are true...but I do think I have to try a bit harder to sell something and the way to do that is to sell the STORY!!

So from now on every time I finish a painting or drawing I am going to write a little story to explain what I have done and why I have done it.

That's my little rant for today

AFTER THE RAIN

Just going to share some lovely 'green' photos of our place after wonderful summer rain

Looking north 

Cow and calf 

Looking south east

 Mt O'Connell which is very impressive.

lots of grass..no cattle in this paddock.

Taken from the same spot just moved the camera a little to the north east.

 Looking towards the sea.

My trusty steed 'Menthol'...if you wanted to caption this ...he would be saying...so you didn't 

bring me something to eat...can't you see I'm starving!!!

The caption on this would be...I know I'm beautiful and I've just learnt to pose!!

That's it until next time.

THE PROCESS

                                    Just thought I would share with you my latest drawing.

This shows the back end of the horse ...his belly and on the left the spur.

 Note the information I have written for my self on the right hand margin.

 If any of you are wondering what that strange thing is beside the pencils...that is what is called a kneadable rubber. It is an amazing piece of equipment.

 It is actually kneadable and it sort of takes the pencil into itself . This one in this picture is very 'used' so therefore is rather dirty. Every now and again you must 'knead' it so that when you rub something out it is clean. They are also very good for rubbing out small areas as you can make them into a point.

Another view of working on the 'darks' All drawing is basically varying degrees of dark and light.....and a lot of practise.

 I have just finished the girth and under the front leg. It was important that I get the right 'dark' there which gives the look of shadow rather than a dense black area.

 Another use for the kneadable rubber is it will pick up pencil and that is how I have got that effect in the 'not too dark' places of this drawing.

Here I have continued to work under the belly of the horse and also the 'off-side' foot of the rider.

  

This is about the end I think. As you can see the last thing to go in is the shadow under the horse and the beast. Also the addition of some dirt. This 'grounds' the whole thing. 

Shadows are very important in my drawings as they go towards telling the story.

 I always look at the shadows to tell what time of day the action is taking place. 

 As 'viewers' we sub-conscientiously look at the shadows to make that work of art just that much more 'real'

Hope you enjoyed this PROCESS

Until next time

THE DROUGHT TO END ALL DROUHGTS

That's what they are saying about this current drought. For a while I wasn't convinced that it was 'the worst'...as you all know... Queensland has been regularly effected by extreme weather conditions...either floods or droughts

Remember the poem..'.land of droughts and flooding rains'

This shows the extent of the drought at the moment. There is no real rain forecast for the near future.

But now I see why it is so...there are people in the north of this great state that are going into their 3rd year with out rain!!

Can you imagine what that must be like?

I heard a story from a 'truckie' yesterday (he was here delivering cattle)...and truckie's love to have a yarn...I asked my husband once why they are this way..and his answer was that they spend a lot of time driving and don't see people ..so they make up for it when they get a chance.

Which reminds me of a time a few years ago when we had a property out at Bollon in the south west of Queensland. We had bought cattle from New South Wales and they ended up arriving in the middle of the night around 2 am. It was also the middle of winter and it gets very cold in that part of the world.

If it wasn't bad enough having to get out of your warm bed and unload a couple of trucks of cattle ...we then had to stand around shivering while listening to the truckie's 'tall' story's......he didn't seem one bit concerned that he was keeping us out of bed......maybe he was enjoying himself at our expense.!!

Anyway, getting back to the story at hand.

Yesterday's truckie story was about a farmer and his wife up north, who because of the on going drought had completely destocked their property...all 400,000 acres of it.

There was not a beast, not a horse, nothing except he and his wife.

Drought

Can you imagine them sitting out there on their ruined, parched land with nothing. They can't leave as they would have no money to go. They have to stay and protect what is left. What will happen to people like this?

They are not alone, there are probably hundreds out there doing it tough like that ...just going from day to day, looking at the sky, hoping the rain will come.

I was speaking to my sister recently and they are really suffering with the dry as well. Their biggest problem is they are quickly running out of water.

This water problem is one of the reasons this drought is worse than others,   people can see an end to their water supply.

A dam gone dry

What to do next?

You can buy feed to feed your cattle or sheep but you can't buy water...well maybe you could but it would be impossible to cart enough water to keep a mob of cattle  alive.

A cow with a calve will drink up to 120 litres a day. In drought conditions this could reach as much as 150 litres.
Over a mob of 500 head of cattle that would be 60,000 litres a day, 420,000 litres a week and 1,680,000 litres a month.

It is not ' if ' they run out of water it is ' when '.

People on the land have an incredible ability to look at things in a completely optimistic way. They all know that it WILL rain ONE DAY. So they just focus on that event ...and just keep going, getting out of bed each morning to face it all again.

This is all the water this farmer has left.

Making decisions that would break the spirit of lesser humans beings. These decisions are based mainly on HOPE and not much else.

They know there are cut off points. Like when they have to cut off feeding their cattle because they just can't borrow any more money and they also know they are fighting a losing battle as the cattle are dying faster than they can keep the feed up to them.

And as I mentioned before they have to work out, as best they can, how long their water supply will last, so that they can sell their cattle before they have to watch them perish.

Sounds unbelievable doesn't it?  But it's a reality. It is happening every day. When you are driving to work sipping on your early morning coffee, think of a farmer going about his morning shooting starving cattle and trying not to do the same to himself.

I heard that our treasurer Mr Hockey saying that he will ' look ' at the multi million dollar proposal put forward by Barnaby Joyce to support the cattle industry..part of that being a ' rural reconstruction type bank ' which would lend money to farmers at a reduced rate...something like the rate of a home loan. His comment was,'  why would you lend more to people who are already in trouble..'

But it looks like our treasurer is looking into spending zillions to bale out our failing the car industry.

The thing that people like Mr Hockey don't seem to be able to grasp is we are not dealing with a car industry or a shop owner ...we are dealing with animals and human beings. We are dealing with suffering.

 I'm sure there is a difference between a car and a cow!

Some how we have to get the message across that things are out of control for people in the bush. They need money to keep cattle alive and them selves.

They also need support and understanding from the rest of Australia.

The good times...lets pray the storms come soon!!

Until next time

PASSING OF AN ERA.

My wonderful father passed away last week.

It was very sudden...but not totally unexpected as he was in a nursing home and very frail.

A recent photo of Dad with me on the left and Wendy my sister on the right.

He achieved a lot in his 82 years. He wasn't a traveller....in fact he lived and died in Longreach which is a small town in the central west of Queensland. He never left Australian shores.

He probably spent a total of 5 maybe 6 years in other parts...but as I said Longreach was his home and he loved it completely.

View of Longreach 2013.

During the last few years, my sister's and I would take turns to go out to Longreach and spend time with Dad.

 His favourite place to visit was  the Airport where he would look at the display Qantas jumbo jet and more recently the Catalina Flying Boat. He could tell you all about both.

 He loved planes.

The Qantas jumbo jet on display in Longreach

The other 'must' was to take the short trip out to the Thompson River which is just west of the town.
 He loved nothing better than to sit by the river.. light up a smoke.. and take in the view.

The old bridge across the Thompson River at Longreach..in flood

An old photo I found of the Thompson River ..in a dry time.

 Dad was the last descendant of the pioneering Archer family to carry the Archer name in our direct descending line from David Archer...one of the original Archer brothers.

 He had a brother who passed away some time ago, and a sister who married and has 3 sons but of course they don't carry the Archer name.  Dad had all girls and his brother also had girls.

Actually this is not entirely true...Dad's brother had a son from his first marriage...who being the eldest son of the eldest son was called David after his grandfather and his great great grandfather.
Unfortunately he has cut all ties with the family...incidentally David only has one child and that child just happens to be a girl as well.

There is also one other male Archer but he is not married and is from a different descending line to Dad.

Are you thoroughly confused now?  Hopefully not.

For readers who don't know about the famous Archer brothers.....I will fill you in quickly.

It all started with  William and Julia Archer who immigrated to Norway from Scotland in the early 1800's. They had 13 children.... 9 of which were boys. The first 8 children were born in Scotland, the last 5 were born at Larvik (Laurvig) after they moved to Norway.

David was the third eldest son, and was the oldest to have a son and, as was the custom in those days, became the head of the family and passed that title on to my Grandfather David Archer.

 Julia (nee Walker's) family had interests in Australia so the boys came to Australia to work. To make a long story as short as possible...and still keep your interest....the Archer brothers formed a partnership of sorts and decided that the only way to get ahead in this young colony was to go north from their base in New South Wales and explore and ' take up country' of their own.

Charles Archer, he and his brother William were the first to discover and name the Fitzroy River and surrounding areas.

This they did ending up in central Queensland where the two brother Charles and William first rode over the hills from the South-West...know as the Dee Range and looked down on the mere, and further in the distance the big river which they named the Fitzroy after the Governor of New South Wales.

 The year was 1853.

They called their station 'Gracemere'. This name came about because Tom Archer was the only married Archer brother at this time and his wife's name was Grace. The word 'mere' is the Norwegian name for lake.

In the early days Gracemere stretched about 70 k's in each direction from the house....the old brothers probably never knew how much country they had...it was probably somewhere between one and two million acres.

The boundaries would have been rivers and rangers with the eastern boundary being the sea.

There was one big paddock on the other side of the Fitzroy .....and big mobs of cattle were swam  back and forth.

They started there with sheep they had actually walked up the coast ...but after a short time they realised that the country was not suited to sheep .....so they turned their eyes to the west and went exploring in that direction ...looking for 'sheep country'.

In 1857 they took up ' Minnie Downs ' at Tambo. They then walked 5000 odd sheep out there.

The homestead about 1950. 

Robert, my Great Grandfather, took over the management of  Gracemere from his Uncle Thomas. Robert's father, David was never at Gracemere.

The brothers that managed Gracemere over the years were...Charles, William, Thomas, Colin, James and Thomas again.

Colin arrived in 1855 and managed for only three or four years, during this time he designed and controlled the building of the house. He then went back to Norway and started building boats....but that's another story.

Getting back to my father. One of the things that kept Dad entertained in his declining years was writing. He managed to write 3 books...mostly about his life and the people that filled it.

He also wrote about his childhood growing up on a sheep station/stud outside Longreach... and his many visits with his parents to Gracemere..

Here I would like to take a paragraph from one of Dad's books...where he writes about Gracemere.

"I have known Gracemere since I was a little kid, and it has never lost any of it's charm for me. Imagine a two or three year old kid, who had never seen the sea, being taken through that lovely garden with those enormous trees, to the boathouse and looking out on the huge expanse of water. No wonder it left a life-long impression on me."

An old sketch of the back of the homestead. From left back of main house, kitchen, office, men's quarters. The banyan tree on the left is still there today.

The gracious old homestead still stands proudly on the edge of the lagoon and the wonderful garden  which has been tended by Archer women down through the years,  is today still a thing of beauty, and still tended by an Archer woman.

There is a small hill behind the homestead and on it's top is the Archer family cemetery. Archer's have rested there for over 150 years.

So this weekend my sister's and our family's, Dad's last surviving sibling his sister Clair and her children will return to Gracemere where Dad will be laid to rest.

He will finally be at peace once his ashes are buried there along side his Grandparents....his parents..his brother and his wife.

The family cemetery which over looks the house and lagoon.

As I write this I am struck with the realisation that this is something that is very rare these days.
 I now realise how very lucky we are as a family to be able to know that this is where we will go  at the end of our lives..... if we choose.


Some photo's of my Dad...Colin Mackay Archer.

Dad doing what he loved best...classing wool. 1980's.

As a young man 

Taken at the Archer family 150 year reunion in 2003...Dad and his girls. L to R Wendy, Sandy, Grace and Virginia.

Until next time

DROUGHT........

Mustering cows 

We should be used to it by now...or rather we should have worked out how to cope better with it...you would think after all Australia is the driest continent on earth

.We should all have a ' strategy ' ( hate that word ) in place.....or finances arranged and set aside.

You know something put away for a 'rainy day'...or in this case a 'lot of non-rainy days'

I'm sure people away for the rural industries probably shake their heads and wonder why they basically hear nothing about matters away from the big cities .....until there's a drought...and then a wet-behind-the-ears journalist is dispatched from Channel whatever with a camera crew in tow to rush out to the worst affected area's and shove a microphone in the face of a poor over worked desperate and  destitute farmer and ask him ...wait for it...what is he going to do about this DROUGHT!!!!

I saw it last night on the news.....I felt so sorry for the poor fellow trying to answer the stupid questions and not cry. I felt sooo annoyed and frustrated by the reporter's lack of understanding and utter neglect for the position the man was in.

Let me try and explain what we have here.

Drought in western Queensland

We'll use a fictuious farmer and call him Joe Blow...Joe for short.

 Up until 18 months 2 years ago he was chogging along making a living..not a fortune..just a living breeding cattle for the live export trade
...he had been doing this for quite a number of years and he and his bank manager had a mutual understanding. The bank lent him money to run his property and for his family to live until he mustered and wearned his calves from his cows.
Then these grown calves or wearners would be sold and exported.
 He would receive money for the sale of his cattle which would go to the bank to pay off the overdraft .....and things would continue in this way year in year out.

Breeders  going back to the paddock after having their calves wearned

When hard years came about and Joe was faced with a DROUGHT and he had to hand- feed his cattle to keep them alive he would go to the bank for more money and the bank would be happy to give him more because the bank would know that the market for his cattle.... eg the'trade' was there and even though the money per head would be less this year ...at least there was income coming in and hopefully there would be good years to follow to the take up the slack..so to speak.

Now..because the export trade was stopped overnight by some 'do gooder' ...another story.
Joe was suddenly left with no where to sell his cattle.
The complete lack on any income was bad enough....but many other hardships arose from this predicament.

Feeding cotton seed to cattle to keep them alive during a drought

 ....His land which usually ran say 1000 cows that had calves at a rate of 70%.
 You never in that northern Australian country get 100% calving ...in fact 70% is probably stretching things a bit
...so Joe would in normal years get approx 700 calves..which grew up and were sold off.
 But now that he was stuck with these unsaleable (calves ) wearners.
So now he is being forced to run 1700 head of cattle.

Cattle tucking in

This causes what is called 'over stocking' and means the cattle eat all the grass available and when that is done the cattle starve to death.....unless the farmer hand feeds them at great expense.

 Joe feeds them as he loves his cattle...in his own way...they are also his only way of making a living and he then has to go back to his understanding bank manager and ask for more money.
At this point the bank manager starts to become much less understanding.....he Joe has no way of repaying this extra loan to buy feed ..but the bank manager reluctantly lends him the finance. It's within his interest to do so...you see.

 They both know this is the start of the end for Joe.

Coupled with this Joe has 2 children away getting an education at boarding school. This is necessary because of where his property is situated......500klms away from the nearest secondary school. The children were home-schooled by their mother until they needed to go to high school. These kids will now have to come home as Joe can't afford the fees or the travel costs. That's pretty much the end of their education...due to his lack of finances Joe can't afford payed help so the kids become his work force.

(can you imagine the uproar in the city's if a child couldn't finish he's or her education)

Joe has one option available to him and that is to take advantage of southern cattle markets.

 The saleyards can take his cattle ...... As it turns out he is forced to send his young cattle south..if only to get rid of them off his property to relieve the over stocking situation and stop the need to hand feed his cows, and hence gain some control over his finances.

A cattle sale ..buyers in the foreground..auctioneers on walkway.

 The closest saleyard is 1000klms away and the cattle are now not in very good condition to travel. The truck  trip takes 2 days. Half way into the trip the cattle are unloaded and rested and sometimes feed ( this depends on whether the stock agent in that particular town is prepared to get out of bed in the middle of the night or if he'd rather tell the farmer he'd done the job and charge him for the feed....how is he, Joe ever going to know if his cattle were feed or not.

When they eventually arrive they usually spend a few days in the saleyard waiting to be sold.

Cattle sold through the saleyard system are auctioned and  sold on weight ....cents per kilogram of beast weighted over scales.
So farmers try to get their cattle to the yard with the least amount of 'post and rail' or time spent in stock yards and off their normal pasture. Cattle will lose weight rapidly when under stress also.

As you can imagine Joe's cattle sale money didn't even cover the costs of the freight.

Cattle truck 

People have been asking..why is this drought worse than any other...including the 2000's one which in some parts of Australia went on for 8 years.

Because if you are Joe and he represents our northern cattle producers...you have been through all of the above and when you are well a truely on your knees you are hit with a drought and no money to fight it with.

Story continues....

Joe has not received any rain for 18 months. This drought has been coming on for all this time and Joe has for the past 3 or 4 months been hand feeding all his cattle. He is now past the point of no return with the bank and everything that is being spent is borrowed money.

Banks will lend the money to keep the likes of Joe going ...but only until the drought breaks and his property can be put on the market and sold so the bank can recoup it's investment.

When the little shinny journalist turned up at Joe's place the other day and asked him 'What is he going to do about the drought' .............What was Joe to say...pretty much what he said ...he is just trying to keep his stock alive....he is just trying to keep going ...one day at a time....trying to keep food on the table....

He didn't say it was all over because he is a proud man like all men on the land ...they will give up with out a fight.

Some though are over the fight and just can't get out of bed and face dying cattle or dry dams one more day. ...these family's are walking off their places and leaving them to the banks...what's the point they say we don't own them !!


So when a polly in shinny new RM's goes up there to assess the situation and we see him on the ABC news picking his way carefully through poor ol'Joe's cattle yards trying not to stand on anything soft and squishy.... and holds a press conference while trying hard not to swat the flyes.....and tells how he is going to give X amount of relief dollars to 'keep farmers going through the drought' ...

Really as you can see by the above writings...it's like shutting the stable gate after the horse has bolted.

I personally think there is one sure way to correct this everlasting merry-go-round of drought..floods...good time and bad times.

WE NEED A FARMER'S BANK.

 This bank would lend money at a very reduced rate....a rate that is low enough to allow progress and development to go ahead on farms. Also this would allow young.. go ahead... up and coming farmers to borrow money to buy their own farms. This is so important as the average age of farmers in Australia is 60+.

Lets keep young people on the land

So many talented young people from farming family's are forced to go to the city's to work and the times where farms were passed on from one generation to next is long gone ..The older generation
 is forced to either stay on the farm and die there.... or sell to retire.

There just isn't any money.

In answer to my question asked at the start of this rant ...

Why are farmers not prepared for droughts as we all know they are a regular accuracy  in this country.......??

I think I have answered that question


Until next time

REMEMBER... You can view my paintings and drawings check out my website I will ship any where in the world
http://www.theoutbackartist.com.au/     

Contact be by email sandy@theoutbackartist.com.au

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Am I getting old and out of touch?

Am I the only person who is completely SHOCKED by the lastest work by one of ...I think....Australia's leading young artist?

I would love to know what others think of this ' work of art '

S'pose by now your wondering what I'm on about 

Well....wait for it




IT REALLY IS ABOUT SEX AND DEATH , IN THAT ORDER.... ISN'T IT.......Ben's facebook comment regarding this painting.

I just don't understand why this wonderful talented artist has to stoop to this deep depth ....it is I would think done to shock , which is usually left to the untalented and disparate among us.

He is the one standing on the chair.

 ...just had to have a bit of a soap box moment .....hopefully he has this sort of thing out of his system and he will continue to blow me away with his usual masterpieces.

Such as this

I love the way he slaps on the paint and how he leaves the bare white canvas for his light.

That's all for now

I LOVE OLD PHOTO'S AND HISTORY

One sex one year old wethers Isis Downs 1915

Saw this old photo of Isis Downs shearing shed taken sometime around the 1915.
 It is an amazing photo featuring 30,000 sheep waiting to be shorn.
Legend has it that all these sheep were ' 2 tooth's ' or in other words 1 year old and that they were all wethers (male sheep). Just think there were a female equivalent waiting in the wings!

I have had a bit of a search on the wonderfulworldwideweb and come up with some great old photo's of the famous 'Isis Downs Station' at Isisford. It has a wonderful history which goes back to the opening up of western Queensland. In the Isisford/Ilfracombe/Longreach districts it was one of the first stations taken up. Other included' Portland Downs' and 'Wellshot'.

Isis Downs shed  1915

This shed was built around 1910 and was revolutionary in it's day for a number of reasons...

Firstly it was semi-circular not heard of in shearing shed designs before. This was a lot more practical as wool tables were in the center of the shed with shearers working round the outside......roustabouts had less walking and sheep penned up well. There were probably a lot of other reasons but that's all I can think of with out delving into things more....lazy bloger....

Secondly it was run wholly on electricity.......this shearing shed in isolated western Queensland had 'power' before Melbourne......so legend has it anyway.


How is this possible you ask. Electricity was produced from steam. The hand pieces the shearers used were driven by steam also. The shed could utilize 52 shearer's. All the wool pressers were stream driven and there was also a little steam driven train which had carriages to cart the wool from the main shearing shed to what was called the 'dump shed' where wool was 'dumped' into bigger bales to then  be loaded ..by a steam driven loading system on to the first steam driven 'road train' which carted the wool to Blackall wool scour 100 miles away.

Teams of men worked for weeks before shearing to stock pile enough wood to keep the fires burning.

Isis downs at the time this shed was constructed was 234,000 hectares and ran 360,000 sheep. It also employed well over 100 men at shearing time.

A group of Isis Downs jackaroo's  1920

Pictured are some Isis Downs jackaroo's . These Jackaroo's were usually son's of land holders and were doing a sort of apprenticeship in preparation for taking over family grazing property's, or going on to management positions on big company places like Isis Downs.

Isis Downs station hands about to start a days work.  1915

On the other hand also employed were ' station hands'. These men were of a very different class and means to the 'jackaroo'. They were workers and most didn't stand to gain anything other than employment. These men didn't usually have a lot of time or patience with their ' upper-class' work mates and sometimes went out of their way to make the others life a misery.

Sunday afternoon tennis party. Isis Downs 1915

Jackaroo's because of their 'gentlemen son's ' status socialised with the station manager and his family. Station hands never did.

The grand old Isis Downs Homestead

The lovely old Isis Downs homestead. This was taken in 1915. It was one of the few station homesteads that sported a lawn. Most others didn't have the water supply for such a luxury. But Isis had a weir in the near by Thornleigh Creek which made this possible .



This I suppose was the 1900's answer to the 'Pergola'. Looks awful hot to me!!

Isis Downs thatched shelter 1915

Isis Downs as it is today

It is now owned by Consolidated Press Company. All trace of the once mighty sheep station has all but gone....except for the shed ...it has not seen a sheep dragged across it's dusty board for a number of years ..but it is maintained to preserve history so that future generations can see how Australia was once built on the sheep's back.

Until next time