Red Dirt and Slow Down — The Story Behind "Mob"
In November 2021 I took the last proper holiday I have had. A road trip out into western Queensland — St George and Roma as bases, the parched outback as the destination, and no particular agenda beyond slowing down and seeing what was out there.
It was exactly what I needed.
The Queensland outback has a way of recalibrating you. The distances are enormous. The sky takes up more of the view than you expect. The red dirt roads stretch out ahead of you and the silence between towns is the kind that actually settles into your chest rather than making you anxious.
We stopped at the EJ Beardmore Dam near St George — the water low, the gum trees leaning over the bank, the whole scene utterly still in the heat. We pulled into the Nindigully Pub, one of those legendary outback watering holes that has been standing since before anyone can remember, and had a cold drink in the shade while the world moved at a pace that felt entirely reasonable.
And we found the painted silos — at Thallon and the surrounding towns along the Queensland Silo Art Trail. Enormous murals on grain silos rising out of flat country, celebrating the land, the wildlife, the people who have worked this country for generations. They stopped me in my tracks every time.
But the moment that became the artwork happened on the road. A mob of kangaroos in the paddock beside us, bounding through the golden grass in that effortless, unhurried way they have — as if the heat and the distance and the red earth were simply home, and always had been.
I illustrated them in silhouette against a fiery landscape of oranges, reds and golds. Not a photograph. A feeling — the raw, warm, untamed energy of the Australian bush on a November afternoon when you finally remembered how to slow down.
This one is for anyone who has felt the outback get under their skin and never quite left.
Bring Mob Into Your Space
Available as canvas, framed canvas and art print options.