Becoming a dairy farmer brought out the artist in Rachel Nicholson and now she’s sharing her visual love of farming with the world.
Rachel’s Ghinni Ghinni Studio is wall-to-wall dairy cow art, all inspired by her early morning routine of waking up at 4am to collect the cows for milking.
Rachel grew up in Grafton, NSW, with no links to agriculture, but a chance meeting through a mutual farming friend with Sam Nicholson changed the trajectory of her life.
Rachel, 29, and Sam, 32, are now raising their three boys on Jones Island on the mid-north NSW coast, where they farm with Sam’s parents Megan and Geoff.
Although she trained to be a teacher, Rachel knew she had an affinity with farming and moving onto the land with Sam was a perfect marriage.
“I’ve always been fascinated by agriculture and interested in it, even though I went into teaching,” Rachel said.
“I found the transition to farming really exciting and have learnt more than I could have imagined.
“There have been some challenging times, but mostly it has been a really positive experience that I really love.”
Some of the hard times led to artistic creation.
The farm, off the Manning River, was flooded in 2021.
“It’s a good place to be in a drought; not so much in a flood,” Rachel said.
“This is a rare thing for a dairy farmer to say but this year is perfect — but in 2021 we were completely flooded. There wasn’t a blade of grass out of the water.”
However, not even such a dramatic setback could dampen Sam or Rachel’s love of farming.
“We have a really positive outlook,” she said.
“Even after the flood, we didn’t have a negative view. We only look upwards and onwards.
“We put in a big feedpad that could keep cows out of any future floods. We’re constantly trying to future-proof the farm and make it more sustainable.”
Around this time, Rachel started to get interested in art, but it was a year later when the bug really took hold.
“I haven’t always been artistic; it’s only been in the past three or four years that I have been painting,” Rachel said.
“Lismore was flooded 12 months to the week from when our place was flooded.
“I was watching the footage of cows swimming down the river and it brought back all the memories. I felt helpless and didn’t know what to do.
“I had this image pop into my mind of cows as the heroes, helping us to get through those hard times. I sat down and painted it straight away — Jerseys with buckets, mops and umbrellas.
“It felt like a great way to express my emotions and to look at farming in a different way and to express how we feel about our land and our animals.”
Farming brought out Rachel’s dormant art abilities, and it shows no sign of stopping.
While she will return to teaching next year after maternity leave and continues to raise Albert, 5, Joey, 3, and Wilbur, 1, Rachel is also expanding her artistic pursuits and will continue to focus on her cows and farming life.
She has been selling oil paintings for a few years and has recently added line drawings and greeting cards painted with coffee.
“I thought making them into greeting cards would make my art more accessible and easier to share with people,” she said.
For Rachel, the best part of farming is the cows.
“I absolutely love the cows. They are the most beautiful, intelligent animals.
“The connection you can have with them is what makes it all worthwhile.
“When you wake up at four o’clock in the morning and get out into the paddock and see them all there waiting for you, it makes everything worthwhile.”
That 4am experience is a massive influence on her art.
“I recently did a series of works work around my love for 4am.
“At that time of day, I hop out of bed, go out into the paddock and it’s just me, the stars, the cows and the dogs. It’s just perfect.”
Apart from bringing in the cows for milking and giving them a pat, she also takes a lot of photos that become the inspiration for her art.
“I like moody photos that try to capture what I feel in the moment — the stillness and peacefulness.
“There was a moment last year when I went out to bring the cows in for the morning shift and I took a photo. It was so moody and captured everything I felt.
“That’s when it really took off and when I thought I really want to paint cows and share dairy farming with the world through this medium and share our story through my art.
“Dairy farming can be really hard and challenging but my art helps me to focus on the beautiful moments and the simple joys within dairy farming.
“I like to focus on the cows and their personalities and the land around us that we care for.”
Rachel hopes to buy a camera to start night photography.
“Photos help me to look for those beautiful things.”
Sam’s parents have been dairy farmers for 30 years. After many years of leasing, they purchased the farm eight years ago when Sam was ready to come home after university.
Their Boondabah Holsteins make up most of the 250-strong herd, although they also have some Jerseys and Ayrshires.
Rachel does two milking shifts each week and is also part of NSW Women in Dairy, helping to run the annual Bale Up Conference.
“That’s something I’m really passionate about,” she said.
“Sam and I really love the dairy industry and I just want to capture the simple joys and beauty within dairy farming.”
Rachel can be found on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/ghinni_ghinni_studio/ or at: http://www.ghinnighinnistudio