Ute-opia bush artwork

Scratch a bit further and you will also find women with an affinity for the Aussie icon.

Head out to central western NSW and you will find the humble ute has just become a treasured outback artwork - and its gallery is in a paddock.

Burrawang West Station resort owner Graham Pickles and Condobolin mechanic Mike Taylor are creating one of Australia's most unique exhibitions.

They have enlisted 10 mainly country NSW artists and a sculptor, to turn rusted utes who have driven their last mile into art.

They stand out like beacons from the dust and the grass. There's the Bundy bottle ute with a 44-gallon drum for a bottle top, there's the Driazabone-Akubra ute standing tall, there's the emu ute, the stockman ute and the ute that's pays homage to the features of the Central West.

There's the ute with the metallic kangaroo on the tray cover whose eyes myteriously follow your every move and the ute that looks so many forgotten utes in paddocks, rusted, overgrown and home to bush wildlife.

Two weeks ago a big bush party was held to celebrate the 57th anniversary of the birth of the Holden ute and the launch for the Utes in the Paddock project.

Most of the artists and the many people involved in the community project turned out for the party that culminated in a massive fireworks display around the utes.

Pickles says he was inspired to start the project after visiting America's famed Cadillac ranch in Texas on the old Route 66 cross-America path.

But he was not so much inspired by the graffiti-coated display of old Cadillacs half-buried in the ground but by the huge crowd of travellers and tourists that had turned out to see them.

Armed with the concept of giving a tourism magnet for the Central West he came home and convinced Taylor they could make it happen.

Taylor sourced dilapidated utes from local properties and got to work.

It fast became a community project as retired local tradesmen pitched in to strip the drivetrains and windows from the utes before applying extra metal and coating them in a grey primer.

Pickles first contacted Lightning Ridge artist John Murray to paint a ute.

Murray created a work he calls "Circle Work." It's a tongue-in-cheek impression with galahs circling the ute and the human galahs inside peering out.

There are now have 10 utes on display with four more likely.

Pickles says there's actually 17 distinct body styles of Holden utes so who knows where it will end.

So far the only female artist is water-colourist Belinda Williams. Growing up in Moree she had a fair link with the bush ute experience.

She said it took her 10 days to create her work which has a 1980 WB ute model standing on its tailgate dressed as a bushman wearing a Driazabone coat and Akubra hat.

"I wanted something that was really different," she says. "But I wanted something that people could relate to in the bush."

After getting a friend to pose as a `human ute model’ she had the bushman's arms cut out of steel and positioned on the ute.

She had never painted on metal before and had to do all the painting with the ute in the normal position.

Williams didn't get to see her work in its final standing position until the party.

"I think it is a really great concept and something I wanted to be involved in. It was definitely a challenge for me."

The one sculpted work is by Sydney artist Steve Coburn who has had other work displayed at Sydney's Sculptures by the Sea. His work `Ute-opia’ has a rusting EJ ute with a metal tree growing through it and little bush critters living in it.

Pickles says he is pleased with the quality of all the work.

"It is something that is worth driving out to see and you won't be disappointed when you get there."

Pickles has other plans for enlarging the display and as word of mouth spreads other artists are presenting their concepts.

A ute as an outback dunny is on the cards.

The entire collection has been created without corporate support other than local businesses who have donated work and time.

"Its a real community project," he says.

He says he would particularly love to add one more famous Australian artist to the collection - Rolf Harris.

"It would add so much cache to the project," he says.

So, if you're reading this Rolf, give Graham a call, he's got a ute waiting to go.