Local artist Louise Adams has had success at the Spirit of the Land Festival at Lockhart, winning the National Female Farm Sculpture Award with her artwork ‘Holding it all Together’. The former office manager has been interested in art since childhood, but it has only been the last 20 years that she has been able to indulge her passion, taking up traditional watercolour and painting initially. Since that time, she has taught herself many different art forms including sculpture, pottery, plaster and her latest obsession is working in clay. The sculpture Lousie submitted was crafted from .9-gauge tie wire as the competition requires that sculptures are created from farm materials. Themed around the role women have played in the farming and the agricultural community the sculpture depicts two women supporting each other. Louise said that she only recently learnt that up until 1992 women were not permitted to own farms in Australia. “A lot of women have been very involved with farms from the get-go, and I just feel that we’re a little bit the unsung heroes,” she said. “We do hold it all together on the farms and I know during the last really big drought the women were still in paid employment and really supporting their husbands and their families. “I think they don’t perhaps get as much recognition as they should so it’s sort of a reference piece in that women quietly hold it all together which is why we’ve got one big one holding and supporting the little one.” The artwork took more than 35 hours to create, winding and stitching the The Spirit of the Land Festival is in its 20th year and was born out of the worse drought experienced by Lockhart back in 2006 and it was a celebration to the resilience of those who live and work on the land. The festival has grown into an event that features the famous National Farm Art Sculpture Award and a whole weekend of family entertainment.
