Ned Kelly: Last Man Standing

Depending on who you talk to, Ned Kelly was either a criminal or a hero (and as likely to be both). However you look at him, the simple fact is that he is probably Australia’s most famous bushranger (outlaw for those not familiar with the term) best known for the armor he and his gang wore during their exploits.

Born in 1854 in Beveridge, Ned would become an athletic youth known for his bravery (at the age of 11 having saved Richard Shelton from drowning at Hughes Creek, Avenel). However, by fifteen years of age, Ned would face charges of assault against Ah Fook (a fowl and pig dealer) as well as aiding the bushranger Harry Power. Though the charges failed to hold up, later that year, he would face 6 months hard labour due to charges of assault and indecent behavior (brought about by a prank by a family friend)

As if that wasn’t bad enough, within three weeks of his release, Ned would be arrested for possession of a stolen horse. Though innocent of the theft and unaware of the true ownership of the horse, the law would see Ned Kelly facing five years hard labour as a result (he would be released earlier from Pentridge Goal)

At the age of nineteen, Ned was a far more serious individual upon his release, hardened from the experience of prison life. Discovering 31 of his 32 horses had been stolen by the local constabulary was not something that he was prepared to overlook after initially trying to keep his nose clean (for three years). With one thing leading to another, the Kelly family would begin large scale reprisals against those they believed were involved in their persecution.

It was in April (1878) that Ned Kelly would be accused of attempted murder by Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick after the Constable went to the Kelly home to arrest Dan Kelly. Fitzpatrick’s true motives revolved around an interest in Kate Kelly, apparently leading to an assault on her which was fended off by way of a fry pan causing injury to his hand (which he claimed was injured when Ned “shot” him … never mind Ned was elsewhere at the time)

The following period would see the formation of “The Kelly Gang” when Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne & Steve Hart would be involved in the murder of three police officers (Sgt Kennedy, Constables Lonigan and Scanlon) and follow through on two bank robberies (Euroa Bank in Victoria and Jerilderie Bank in NSW). Aaron Sherritt would be killed by his best friend Joe Byrne after the gang was convinced Aaron had been working with the police.

The final stand of the Kelly gang would be at Glenrowan where they prepared to take on the police special train by tearing up the tracks. A plan that would fall apart when they released Thomas Curnow who would warn the train of the impending ambush. constable Bracken who had managed to escape, would then lead the police from the train to Glenrowan Inn where a gunfight would see the deaths of three of the Kelly Gang (reposted by possible suicide when police set fire to the inn). Nedmanaged to escape the Inn, though he was badly wounded, he would attempt to return to the Inn to rescue his brother Dan and Steve Hart, resulting in a final gunfight with police that would see his capture.

There would be a petition of over 30,000 signatures calling for leniency from the governor after a rushed trial that took 2 days to sentence Ned Kelly to die by the noose.

Ned Kelly would be Hung 11th November 1880 with his final words commonly viewed as being…

“Such is life”

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The first panoramic I would draw to replace my work on “The Dragon” would be Ned Kelly and his gang’s last stand at Glenrowan. A fairly easy idea faced with the simple issue that I had never really done anything like it. This would be my first attempt at a range of things.

The first thing to consider would be size and in this case I came to the conclusion that sixteen A3 pages wide would be a good workable number to go with.

The panoramic depicts one of the Kelly gang on the toilet to represent the fact that they were caught with their pants down at the time. Three of them are without their helmets as they died during the conflict.

During the battle at Glenrowan, the police would only suffer one minor wound, that caused to Superintendent Francis Hare who would flee the battle, later resulting in his dismissal. To represent that, not only is there an officer crouched behind a tree, there are two rabbits hiding behind the water trough.

Finally, as the history of the Kelly gang was in fact a result of larger issues of the day, there are the outlines of a pig, bird and fish in the rocks to represent that issues revolving around land ownership played an integral part to the overall history.

My First Baby Steps…

Now needing a new “crowd pleaser” to grab the attention of the public (like 230 A5 prints were not enough), I figured my best approach due to size constraints would be panoramics inspired by Australian history. The concept was simple enough, however, never having really done backgrounds before in any serious manner (only having dabbled with the occasional feature previously) this would be a bit of a first for me on many levels.

In some cases the learning curve would be a steep one.

The first problem I faced was a simple one … what on earth was I going to draw? To pick Australian history was all well and good, but what was there to choose?

The Olympic Games?

America’s Cup?

Football?

Not exactly my cup of tea, after all, I’m not a sports fan and I really wanted to find something that would interest me while I developed my skills before tackling any such subjects. But nothing sprang to mind … Australian history was apparently dry and desolate.

Then I thought of convicts … a little dull, perhaps something to follow through on at a later date.

Ned Kelly!

That was the one to start with … but first I had to see if I could capture the character. Last thing I wanted to do was draw up a lame duck of such an infamous (and much loved) icon, and so I would put pen to paper to draw up two test images with partial background to see how I would do.

Research was minimal, the idea being to create my own version based on my recollections of his history (something I would be told off for by one person a few months later. From his perspective, art should be 100% accurate down to the smallest bolt … but what fun would that be? I wasn’t aiming for historically accurate but to present my own view)

Artistic license is a phrase commonly used as an excuse for inaccuracies within any artwork … but let’s face it, without it, art would simply be boring (besides, my view on a subject is probably different to your view and that keeps things interesting)

As it turned out, the first image was one I was fairly happy with, though one or two aspects needed some working in the overall scheme of things. So it was that I would opt for a second attempt.

Just as a side note, though little to see, the second image has a wanted poster behind the character with the hint of a box Ned Kelly. This is meant as a nod to Sidney Nolan (the famous Australian artist)