Andrew Whitehead's first reaction to featuring in an exhibition called 'The Art of Ageing' was, 'I'm not bloody old'.
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But jokes aside, the 63-year-old Urana sculptor appreciates the sentiment behind the touring exhibition run by the NSW government.
"There's still plenty of good things to come for me," he said.
"I think it's a good idea and there is a stigma attached to being old; I remember myself being guilty of that, looking at my father when he was 75, 80, thinking his usefulness was waning.
"But it wasn't, it was only my interpretation of that. He was still useful and resourceful.
"As you get older yourself, you think, 'This is not too bad'."
Whitehead was snapped at his farm by Wagga photographer Tayla Martin a couple years ago, and was excited to learn the exhibition would be coming to Southern NSW.
However, after being shown at nine locations across NSW this year, Federation Council's turn to host Art of Ageing over August had to be postponed.
Farmer Peter Driscoll, whose photo by Martin also features in the exhibition, had planned to make the trip to Corowa from Morundah to see his picture.
"She (Tayla) is a friend of ours and asked if she could take a photo of me, and that was that," he said.
"It was in the chair, patting the dog.
"We've been out here about 58 years now - we got married and bought land out here and it's been pretty kind to us."
The 84-year-old, whose quote in the exhibition reads, 'I don't let getting older stop me, I just keep doing what I'm doing', said the pandemic hadn't affected him greatly.
"Not really, we wear a mask when we go into town but it doesn't affect us much on the farm," he said.
"The session is looking pretty good actually."
In Urana, Whitehead hasn't had major problems with his usual customer base but had to cancel two courses he usually runs and a bus tour with Martin's Coaches visiting his artwork around the region.
"It's rolling on," he said.
"I live in isolation every day of the week, so it's not a big thing for me.
"There's a bit of disappointment in some attitudes, but I don't know what we can do about that.
"I think if many young people were falling off the perch, we'd have a totally different attitude to this disease."
"It's very emotional for all of them, I'm picking it up in their comments," he said.
"It's more than a sculpture - it has significance for them."
It will join many well-known works the sculptor, who says he is only "one third" through his career, has created.
He began a mechanical apprenticeship at 40 years of age and entered his first sculpture in the Farm Art Show in Lockhart, which he won.
The Art of Ageing is an initiative under the NSW Ageing Strategy 2016-2020 to demonstrate the diversity and contributions of older people in NSW; it will tour to 45 sites across NSW.
