I think one of the reasons that made moving a bit easier is where we were in Berwick when we built that house we actually had cows up to the back door. It was still quite rural and in the end we were just surrounded by freeway. If you're going out during the day you could never go you know around nine o'clock or come back about 3, 3.30 because of school hours. You always wanted to get home before that because the traffic was just incredible. So I think that was one of the reasons that I was happy to leave Berwick. And also we had a lot of support from our children you know they were really happy for us to you know move to a quieter area and that's not too far you know it's like an hour and a half driving to see them so it's not bad. But I think the house that we bought probably too because being the only one that we actually physically looked at and we just both fell in love with it straight away.

The Art of Life and Curiosity is produced by Beck Robertson and has been beautifully edited by Simon Murphy from SMR Productions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every time I go away anywhere, like we've done a lot of outback travel. We drove across the Simpson desert. I ended up making a massive series of big paintings about the Simpson. We came down the Canning Stock Route just before COVID. And I sit in the car and I draw everything that goes past. And so the diaries I did for that, I made into a big, big artwork. And then I made lots of artworks, you know, from that. And some of them I'd collected bits of slate and things like that from the area and actually used them in the artwork. So, yeah, if you're stuck in one place, for me anyway, you see more clearly when you go somewhere new, I think.

The Art of Life and Curiosity is produced by Beck Robertson and has been beautifully edited by Simon Murphy from SMR Productions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Photo Credit: @karli_michelle_commercial

And all of a sudden you're noticing the things around you.

You're noticing cycles and the seasons and rain.

When you're living in the city, rain is a nuisance and it's cold and revolting.

But when you've got a farm or even if you've got a garden, you think, "Oh gee, rain. That's fantastic. How good to have that water." You are looking for signs that the grass is growing.

It is such a thrill at calving time when those new little calves appear. It's very grounding.

And I love the connection between what we're doing with our farm animals and the grass and also what we're doing with the nature around us. So having that connection between the biodiversity and the farm, they're not mutually exclusive. They both work together.

Jillian Staton

The Art of Life and Curiosity is produced by Beck Robertson and has been beautifully edited by Simon Murphy from SMR Productions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.