Wednesday now and I’m heading for Lockhart via Deniliquin, a 380 Km trip that would be only 200 Km without the diversion to visit the Deniliquin water tower. I woke early so I got up, (I thought about a snug shower in bed but decided it wouldn’t work),had a shower and was on the road by 7.30. It was an easy drive, but the GPS wanted to take me a different way, so at one stage I had the car GPS, the Tom Tom GPS and Google maps giving me directions and they were all different. I had checked the way I wanted to go the night before so I knew which GPS to follow at each turn. I was interesting the Google Maps wanted me to go done narrow dirt roads and also through shut gates. The estimated time on Google maps was about 3 times what it took.
NSW is green like Victoria, but the grass and crops are much lower than in Victoria so cit would seem they have had less rain. The water tower at Deniliquin was a very good one also painted by Cam Scale who did the Devenish silos in Victoria, which were also very good.
The next stop was at Lockhart where I would stay overnight at a council caravan park, it is well set up with 4 new individual toilet/shower rooms for us to use and flat grassy sites. Of course there is the necessary power for the heater and electric blanket. The water tower in Lockhart was decorated in paintings of birds, which were all very well done. It was painted by Blue Mountain artists, Scott Nagy and Janne Birkner (Krimsone) and has a waterfall in the section where the parrots are painted.
The tower is in a small garden and has some small trees and buildings next to it so as you approach you see a stork painted on the top of the tower and that excites your interest to see the rest. The next bird you see is a magpie, both birds are in the photos above.
The above photo shows the an Eastern Rosella, a couple of Galahs and a Kookaburra with a waterfall in the middle. The painting of the Eastern Rosella was excellent, so realistic.
The galahs were not too bad either!
The small garden around the water tower had three sculptures and I especially liked the cocky and the two emus.
Tomorrow, Thursday, I am off on a circuitous journey to Wagga Wagga, Narrandera to then finish overnight at Weethallo where there is also silo art to view.
Some people have a real gift for art. I wish I was one of them. They look amazing.
A real gift indeed, there were sheep on the one I visited today and I felt that if I walked up and touched them they would be soft. The cows also looked real. The lady artist used 800 spray cans and I think 180 litres of paint. It took her 5 weeks. I am enjoying the trip even moving on every day has been OK but I have 2 nights at Bathurst so that will be good.
Hi Russ, absolutely fascinated by all the paintings on the silos, being an artist myself I am amazed at the talent and even more so at the work put in to paintings so large. When you think about the logistics of getting to the site, balancing, working out proportions etc, it’s amazing.
We’ve been in the throws of moving back to the uk these past few months so didn’t really catch on to your blog until now, but, we have the joy of a good run at it. Really enjoyable and so many wonderful photos.
Barry and Rhon are visiting us on the 20 th of this month on their world tour, they’re with Shaun in Canada at the moment.
Hi Jane, The silo and water tower art is fantastic, I have really enjoyed visiting all the art sites. The artists are very clever and they do it 40 m up in the air and as you say in such large scale. I think the more detailed works draw their art and then use computers to print out sheets of paper that they then use to transfer the outlines to the silo/water tower. Barry and Rhon have told me about your move back to the UK, I hope it is going well, maybe with Brexit and the cricket you maybe should move out here! It will be great, I am sure, to meet up with Barry and Rhon, they are having a good time in Canada I hear. Cheers Russ