The Silo Art Trail in western Victoria has grown a bit since I last drove it.
At Lascelles Rone has painted local farming couple Geoff and Merrilyn Horman, part of a family that has lived and farmed in the area for four generations. They occupy one silo each facing in opposite directions. Maybe they’re not talking to each other …
Lascelles … Geoff
It has an unwanted effect for the photographer. When Geoff is nicely lit Merrilyn is contra jour.
Lascelles … Merrilyn
I’ll have to go back on an overcast day. Although the sky that day was being generous in other ways …
In January last year I stumbled on the recently painted silo in Brim, a small town in north-western Victoria. I wrote about it in a post entitled A Tale of Two Cities.
It proved a remarkable success and a major disruption to traffic for a while. By June it had spawned the idea of an art trail to attract tourists to a part of the state that is in need of a little love.
Poor old Patchewollock with its boarded up general store was the next town to receive an artistic baptism …
… by October Fintan Magee was hard at work painting a portrait of local man Nick Hulland.
If you’re tempted to take up silo painting have a look at Fintan in action in a series of slides from the Wimmera Mail-Times.
Sheep Hills doesn’t have a boarded up general store or even a working store but it does have a silo which is now beautifully painted by Melbourne street artist Adnate. The portraits are of local indigenous people.
Three more silos are on the drawing board at Rupanyup (starting in March), Lascelles and Rosebery.
The proper pronunciation of Rupanyup is not obvious. Start with the last syllable, forget the u and say Yip. Now for the middle syllable, forget the a and say pun. Put those together Punyip with the emphasis on the pun. Precede that with the Re from republic and you will be able to ask directions to … Re-punyip. It’s about 300km from Melbourne. No good asking directions until you get closer.
Victoria
Sheep Hills is a little off the main road.
The only large(ish) town on the route is Warracknabeal. There is a road house on the highway, shops and accommodation can be found in town.
bobmcgee 