Back in early 1993 I became aware that one of Australia's favourite sons was to celebrate an incredible 50 years of recording with EMI Studios, his name is Slim Dusty (aka David Gordon Kirkpatrick).
This gentleman is as Aussie as the Kangaroo and his music is pure Aussie country. Slim loves Australia and Australia loves Slim, there is scarcely an area of this country he has not visited.
He has recorded over 100 albums to date and he has probably received more awards and honors than any other Australian.
He has two books written about his amazing life/career:

There was also a film titled "The Slim Dusty Movie" made during the 1980's , the film is a loose chronography of Slim and his lifestyle. It tried hard to encapsulate Slim's story, but it scarcely scratched the surface really.

With his trade mark Akubra hat and his gifted ability to describe Australia and it's people in song, his contribution to our heritage is unsurpassed. If would be very difficult to find an Aussie who does not know who Slim Dusty is.

I have listened to and loved his music all my life and I decided in 1993 to tool a portrait of him on leather. Rendering portraits are always a challenge, as the artist has very little or no opportunity to take any artistic license with the work. I perservered with the challenge and I was quite pleased with the results. Later that year, Slim was touring our area, so I contacted him on the chance he like to see the finished portrait while he was in Taree. At the same time I did another carving for him to have. This picture, also tooled on leather, is shown in it's original format below.
The carving I gave him became an honorary one for me. Slim used it as the cover art of his 50th Anniversary Album.
The portrait, now autographed by Slim, has been viewed by thousands of people, particularly durng my years at Timbertown Heritage Village in Wauchope NSW, where I operated a Leather shop.
The portrait is still in my possession.

If you would like to know more about this great Aussie, visit Slim's new Web Site.

Another great Aussie country music entertainer and songwriter by the name of Trevor Day saw the portrait of Slim in my shop at Timbertown and was so intriged by it, he wrote a song about it!