The Mural is Completed

Yes, the mural is completed - to the delight of our local community.

We hope that it will always be here.

Not much more than you can add to the title of Adnate's book of his works.
These people have always been here.

This post is connected to our last post where there was a public street art exhibition happening. The extraordinary thing was that it was happening in daylight to the delight of our local community and promoted by the Collective Cafe and supported by the townsfolk as well as the business and local government community.


From Adnate's website: adnate.com.au - check it out

Adnate is an artist that realises his portraits in spray paint. He has moved past his roots in Street Art, utilising the medium to carry his realist style into the fine art realm.

Heavily influenced by the chiaroscuro of renaissance painters like Caravaggio, Adnate embraces portraiture like the masters of the XXI Century.

Adnate has always held a connection towards indigenous people of their native land, especially with Indigenous Australians.  He paints large scale murals in the main cities around Australia and the world, creating a statement of reclaiming the land that was always theirs.  He endeavours to capture the stories and emotions of each subject he paints, encouraging the audience to feel through their own experience.

Adnate at work

A publication that brings Adnate's previous work into a gallery of the most wonderful street art. 

So what does this all mean in Trentham. We have a cafe here call "The Collective". It's a meeting place not just for the locals, but a new experience for those that knowingly or just by chance discover Trentham. The Collective situated in a previous bank building brings good food, great coffee - a sense of community spirit but also a recognition to the original inhabitants of our region. The indigenous peoples of the region were the Dja Dja Wurrung. They inhabited Victoria's central highlands within the Loddon river and Coliban river district that includes Trentham. 

The finished product was one that the locals saw from a blank canvas, then a background of the vibrant colours of the Aboriginal flag to this stunning portrait of an indigenous young person.

This influence is brought to us through Rhys and Nathan of the Collective. Nathan is of indigenous background and is proud of his heritage. Sitting with Rhys today at the Collective we learned that Nathan is to meet with the fashion industry and may just become the first Australian Indigenous international male model. He is highly regarded locally so we wish him success overseas.

Autumn in Trentham.

May 14 - surely it can't be that long ago since our last post. Our life in retirement has been, well not so relaxed as one would expect. We seem to fill our days with no real plan in mind - it all just happens around us. There's garden projects, socialising and of course just becoming part of our community. Our motto here is Cool Country Trentham but the people are warm.

Take last week for instance. Trentham had an amazing mural painting happening in front of our local community on the wall of one of the five cafes in town. This mural was to pay tribute to the original indigenous people of our land.

You'll notice that there is a background canvas on the wall of the cafe - later in the day a young indigenous girl's face was painted over the background - I'll take another photo this week and show you the finished product. It was quite amazing to see the town folk turn out for the all day affair.

Then there was the amazing colours of autumn - or for those readers from the USA, Fall.....

The mornings now are getting more crisp - the mist surrounds us here in the Victoria's Central Highlands.

But by late morning, the mist departs and the sun appears. Celeste Citroen then comes out to play amongst the autumn leaves.

The local wildlife keep us amused. The ducks waddle into our property to keep our grass at an acceptable level as do our kangaroos.
I half expect the roos to lean up on one elbow, light a cigar and puff away. They love the autumn sun in the mid-arvo.

These guys are just couch potatoes - resting in the autumn sun.

And these little fellows work on the process of eating our grass while fertilising our yard.

So far we are enjoying autumn in Trentham, but - winter is yet to come. We've had a few minus freezing days so far but later we seem to have lovely sunny days. 

Past Trentham Postcards

I'm doing some research on the early history of Trentham and found these photos on the internet.

I suspect that the population was far great than it is today in a little village.