A painting experience never forgotten

Illara Waterhole

My first trip to Illara Waterhole Central Australia.

Instalment 1.

I never was much of a one for painting en plein air but a long time ago now, perhaps about 2007, I heard about Sandrifter Safaris who took artists to outback Australia to paint. Being at a bit of a loose end in my life I decided to go with them to paint at Illara Waterhole.

The trip started at Alice Springs and there were 18 artists on board. Gerry and Corinne ran the tours and collected us in an old 4wd bus loaded with all the equipment for camping on top. Now I was never one for camping, but then these tents were tall enough to stand in and each person was to have one tent to themselves.

Heading out to Illara, some 250 K from Alice, we bounced over bumpy tracks and into the wilderness. Illara was on Aboriginal land, but Sandrifters had a permit to enter. We travelled along, in great anticipation for what was ahead of us. 11 days of painting with all creature comforts and food taken care of. Even wine was supplied! Gerry had arranged for someone to go ahead and be there to help put up the tents.

Well we got bogged in the sand crossing one of the wide river beds that one has to cross didn’t we! So we were late arriving at the camp. I had no idea what to do with my tent or where to put it as only one bloke had turned up to help us put up the tents. Gerry threw all the tents off the top of the bus, and there I was dragging this tent from one spot to the other… will I put it here under the trees or out in the open??? Luckily one of my fellow artists friends helped me and so as the sun sank slowly in the west we were set up. Gerry only had time to set up one portable loo tent before it was dark. Well I hated it, and was ready to go home. After a few glasses of red I staggered to my tent and fell into my sleeping bag, on a mattress on a stretcher and snored myself to sleep. In the middle of the night the camels and wild horses came down to the waterhole to drink. Passing through the camp, there was a racket and I dreamt of aborigines surrounding the camp with guns and heard all these hoofbeats etc. “Everyone has nightmares on the first night,” I was told.

I must describe Illara. We were in the middle of nowhere with a cliff face in front of the camp, and beneath the red rocks of that cliff was Illara waterhole. Just a beautiful place indeed. Faces in the rocks looked down at you as you swam in the green depths of the waterhole. It was just beautiful, and I soon forgot my feelings of wanting to go home as we  had breakfast, cooking toast over the campfire. There was a kitchen truck and a cover t for tables and chairs.  Lights were strung between the posts for the evening meal, but most of us sat around the campfire to eat. One could feel the spirituality of the place, and we were the only ones there.

The piece de resistance was the shower truck. Water was boiled in a pot on the open fire and when it got hot enough the water came out of a spout and you filled the bucket. This water was  poured  into a gallon drum in the shower and was topped up with cold water. The idea was that you got in the shower turned on the tap. Wetted yourself, turned off the tap, lathered up, then turned the tap on again and rinsed off the soap. Ingenious. The toilets were another matter. Just a selection of  portable toilets in various places. Poor Gerry had to empty these into a hole ‘ up shit creek’ as we called the cutting where the waste was buried before we left.

Every day after breakfast Corrine packed up lunches for us and Gerry took us out to different areas to paint. There were places like The three sisters, the dingo caves, and others that I can’t remember the names of, named by previous art travellers. He would drop us off at any of these and do a lunch run later for those who wanted to come back to camp and have lunch could do so, and those who wanted to say all day were picked up later at 3pm.

We had a day trip to kings Canyon to paint as well, but stayed in the Illara area for most of the time. One beautiful site we found , and I have done many paintings of this scene, was on a walk a short way from camp up a dusty track and as you came towards the top this huge outcrop of rocks appeared in front of you, the faces looking down watching as you approached. I called them The Guardians.

On our last day we had an exhibition on the ground of all our paintings. You might ask what materials were used? well most used water based paints. All of us had a lovely time in this wonderful place, and many returned time after time. I have met many artists through my journeys and it is like a ‘family’. I have done 10 trips with them over the years, and will be doing others. The Covid stopped us all in our tracks last year, and I am hoping for this year fingers crossed.

I will have Illara in my mind forever, and have been there three times since- those adventures I will talk about in another blog, and also will talk about other places I have been to with Corrine and Gerry who have since sold that business and now are called Create Art trips where we have accommodation, not tents.

So stand by for the next instalment!

‘The guardians”