FOR a retired farmer, 78-year-old Ian Reardon sure is busy.

In recent years, the well-known Terry Hie Hie philanthropist has swapped the tractor and fencing pliers for an easel and palette as he continues to grow his love of bush art.

Earlier this month, Mr Reardon reached a career benchmark when named a finalist in the Gallipoli Art Prize, a highly-esteemed annual Australian art competition asking artists to interpret the spirit of the Gallipoli campaign using loyalty, respect, love of country, courage and comradeship.

Mr Readon’s oil on linen work, The Despatcher Sulva Bay, is currently exhibiting alongside other finalists at The Rocks in Sydney.

“My painting was inspired by the bravery of the Anzac despatchers who galloped across open country under enemy fire to deliver and send mail to families and friends back home,” Mr Reardon said.

Terry Hie Hie artist Ian Reardon being creative at Moree on a Plate.

“This was a great morale booster to troops and loved ones. These acts of bravery have contributed to the legend of our Anzacs and the high esteem in which they are held worldwide.

“I entered the competiton and ended up getting in the finals. I didn’t win, but to make the list of 30 finalists is as good as a win to me,” he smiled.

“All finalists’ works are exhibiting at the moment, and will be for three weeks.”

Mr Reardon also has four paintings in an exhibition at the Queensland Club in Brisbane and has just completed a major project to exhibit next year.

“I’ve done another big version of the Charge of Beersheba, and I plan to put that in the Banksia Art Exhibition in Brisbane in January,” he said.

When he’s not exhibiting at major galleries in New South Wales and Queensland, Mr Reardon donates artwork to local organisations and community clubs for charity auctions or raffles.

In the past few years, Mr Reardon has donated paintings to picnic race clubs as well as Moree RSL Sub-Branch.

Artist Ian Reardon has donated The Drover’s Wife for the Moree on a Plate raffle, with tickets now available from committee members each morning at Brooker Trading Co on Balo Street.

In 2024, Mr Reardon’s painting, Before the Last at Talmoi, sold for $7500 and the following week at Mungindi, Watching the Local Favourite Bring them Home, fetched $4000.

Mr Reardon also donated artwork to the clubs last year and gifted The Charge of Beersheba to the Moree sub-branch to display at Moree RSL Regional Military Museum.

In April this year, Mr Reardon donated one of his latest works, The Drover’s Wife, to the Moree on a Plate committee to raffle as a fundraiser at Moree’s iconic food and wine festival on Saturday, May 9.

“Moree on a Plate is a great thing for the town, and the district, and I just like to contribute to events like this,” Mr Reardon said.

“I used to paint at Moree on a Plate, but I’d get distracted and it was hard trying to get the painting done in one day.

“So, I figured I’d do one beforehand that the committee can raffle or auction,” he said.

“This particular painting came about from when I was younger, just after I was married.

“I used to go on the road a lot with cattle. The painting depicts me on the horse going to look at the mob and my wife, Jacqui, with our eldest daughter, Penny, watching me trot away,” he said.

“In the painting, Jacqui is pregnant with our other daughter, Belinda, and Penny is about three or four.

“There’s a famous painting by Russell Drysdale called The Drover’s Wife, and I borrowed the name for this painting,” he smiled.

Mr Reardon began painting at a young age and was encouraged by his grandfather, Jack Isbister.

He didn’t pick up a brush and palette again until the late 1990s, but his vast body of work continues to grow.

“I’m pretty much a full-timer artist, now,” Mr Reardon said.

“I do a little bit of fencing with my son Dan and the boys from time to time, but about 90 per cent of my time is now painting.”

Moree on a Plate committee members are selling raffle tickets outside Brooker Trading Co, ahead of this year’s festival to be held Saturday, May 9 at Moree racecourse.

For more information about the food and wine festival, go to Moree on a Plate.

Moree on a Plate

When: Saturday May 9, 2026

Where: Moree racecourse

Time: 10am until 3.30pm

Cost: Gold Coin donation at the gate