Drought and the Ninas

 Living in Australia, farmers are used to battling droughts, floods, bushfires and we somehow seem to manage to survive these extremes when they happen, whether you believe many of the current theories behind their causes or not. Weather is an important topic in our daily lives. This is evident from the number of private weather forecasters which have exploded on social media since the Australian BOM seems to have strayed from its main charter of predicting the weather. Last week the BOM had our area on flood watch, many days before the predicted rain event and again most desperate farmers were let down by the BOM when their predictions were wildly inaccurate for our region. Maybe they are trying too much to be accurate over a longer period before the predicted events, possibly concerned about legal ramifications if they are wrong ( as they always seem to be).

 What's this got to do with art you say? A lot because the weather affects your mood, affects your daily art practice and inspires you. A nice wet day promotes being indoors sewing instead of for me, outdoors working on restoring our house.  My next two artworks are a response to the weather. We hear so much in the media these days about the drivers for our weather, el Nino and La Nina. One meaning drought for us and one supposed to mean rain . I made  two pieces for my 2020 Wondai exhibit showing the weather extremes. I used copper foil in the focal area of the Drought piece to create a further inner frame. The landscape I used for inspiration is the view from our driveway as I returned home in late 2019. Even the ironbark and quinine trees were dying at that time.

When it does rain, the effects can be quite spectacular with the country turning green from fresh grass growth and trees responding. La Nina years seem to occur less than el Nino years so we try to drought proof the farms as much as possible by building dams and finding underground water to use.

This artwork was inspired by the many shades of green which delights the eye after a few decent falls of rain.

This is the view down Trentham Lane. A road leading to one of our paddocks which has a few gully crossings. Most of the time they are dry but occasionally they are like this.

This photo shows the colours of our soil, grass and trees when there is rain about providing inspiration for colour selection for more artwork.

Now the BOM are talking about polar vortexes, MJO oscillations as well,  being climate drivers, I will have to research more so I can find further inspiration in the weather.