She may be 86 but her hand is steady and her mind quick as a dart, with a dash of good humour wrinkling her eyes.

One of many artists who travelled to the area as part of the Breeza Artists’ Camp last week, her love for the plains is visible and strong.

The young girl who grew up in Breeza may have long gone but a visit to her childhood home has brought out the artist that lies within.

“I just loved living at Denistone. It was a romantic, wonderful place to grow up,” she said.

Just a schoolgirl when she moved to the farmer’s cottage at Denistone, a property 4km out of Breeza, the only child became friends with her animals and visitors instead.

“My father managed the property from 1934 to 1951. Swaggies would call in all the time on their way through looking for work.”

She said her late father went nowhere without a hoe, to cut the Bathurst burrs that would mar his flock of merino wool, a persistent problem on the plains at that time, and the swaggies would often be called into action as “burr cutters”.

Judy said she knew she was home when travelling back from school, she’d cross the railway line and see the mirages on the Breeza plains.

“I’d always feel I was home seeing those,” she said.

Judy said she particularly enjoyed the August and September school holidays because it was shearing time at the farm.

Helping out her father and the various rouseabouts, young Judy would help muster and yard her father’s sheep, and hang over a rail at the shed for hours watching the shearers at work.

Never short of animal friends, Judy had a white pony, Emalina, whom she said “everyone learnt to ride on”, and an Irish terrier, along with a merry band of her father’s working dogs.

When the skies clouded over and rain fell on the plains, Judy said the famed black soil of the plains would turn into a quagmire, isolating the farm and turning the dirt roads in a boggy mess.

“We’d go everywhere by horse and sulky, but we’d be at home for weeks when it rained,” she said.

For such occasions, the larder would be kept well-stocked with huge tins of tea and sacks of sugar and flour for the family to subsist on when they couldn’t get to town for supplies.

Even today, the spidery cursive handwriting still exists on the inner door of the larder, listing stocks of items that were consumed more than 80 years ago.

Leaving at age 22 to get married and live in Gunnedah, where she lives still, Judy said she would get quite sentimental when passing the plains and seeing her house in the distance.

Returning this week to sketch her former home, she passes through the derelict cottage like she has never left, pointing out new additions, favourite parts and the view across the plains.

“It’s very peaceful here. You feel as if you’re in another world. It’s very nostalgic to go back.”

The Breeza Community Hall has played base camp for artists, photographers and musicians during the week-long retreat, with one simple task at hand, to capture the beauty of the region.

The tiny locality, 43km from Gunnedah, has just 133 residents at last count but with their easy nature and country hospitality, the remaining Breeza locals have made their new “resident artists” feel right at home.

Organiser Jane Creagan, who has her own history with the area, described the camp atmosphere as “fantastic”.

Jane, who now lives in Glen Innes, was the Breeza postmaster’s daughter in the 1970s, saying she has fond memories of growing up in the once thriving village and surrounding countryside.

As camp den mother, she’s been busy organising assignments, baking trays and trays of scones and busy thinking about next year’s event.

“People are having a lovely time. Some are already saying a week isn’t long enough and are talking about coming back,” Jane said.

When The Leader visited on Saturday evening, lines of paintings were drying in the sun against the men’s toilets while banjo music filled the air against the backdrop of gentle chatter.

It seems the hardest decision here was whether to take advantage of the late evening light for a spot of painting or to check out the musicians who are setting up their guitars in the hall.

There’s a steady stream of visitors to the campsite including locals dropping in to chat and recollect the good old days in Breeza’s history.

Tenterfield digital artist Gail Galloway spent a week out in the field speaking to Breeza locals, including a trio of “girls” – Vola, Judy and Peggy, whom she described as “a goldmine of local history”.

“They are ex-Breeza girls, Vola in particular, absolutely loved Breeza,” Gail said. “They were so animated and passionate about the place. It was amazing to get these little snippets of oral history.”

Gail’s final works will appear with hundreds of other pieces in an exhibition scheduled for September.

Jane said she hopes the exhibition will travel around the New England North West, bringing the beauty of the plains into the halls and communities around the area.

But all good things must come to a end and as the camp drew to a close on Wednesday, the pastels, paints, banjos and guitars were packed away and the last artist was waved out of town. The hall, the centre of community activity fell silent, belonging to the locals of Breeza once again.