Hart Parr 18-36 Tractor

Watercolour on Arches paper. 
Painting size: 620mm x 395mm, 
Frame size: 910mm x 665mm.
 

This painting is currently in the Rutherglen Tastes of Art Prize 2024.  I have another watercolour painting in the exhibition titled "Mitta Mitta Fisher".  Click Here to find out about that painting,...

The Hart Parr Tractor Painting
Somehow, a photo of one of these tractors appeared on my FaceBook feed and I was fascinated by it.  It reminded me of the old Lanz Bulldog and Fordson tractors I used to see when I was a kid.  I specifically remember the belt drive set up and how it was used to drive large circular bench saws.

I searched for more information and images of these tractors and created this painting from a combination of those images.  At first I was going to do a painting of the right hand side of the tractor as it was more complex but, after seeing the left hand side with the belt drive on it, I decided to paint that side of the tractor.

A painting of the right hand side of one of these tractors may come later,...?

Once I had the images and the drawing of the tractor done and transferred to watercolour paper, I had to work out a background setting for it.  That came from a photograph of a farm dam (tank) I saw just off Mahers Road, Bonegilla, Victoria.

My research also revealed the Hart Parr 18-36 Tractors were manufactured in Charles City, Iowa, USA,  from 1926 to 1930.  The 18-36 G model was made from 1926/27, the 18-36 H from 1927/28 and the 18-36 I from 1928 to 1930. 

The Hart-Parr 18-36 was exported as a New Zealand and Australia Special, outfitted for dry conditions. A different air cleaner was used and the exhaust was vented straight up off the engine.

This tractor was called the 18-36 because it had 18 horsepower at the drawbar and 36 horsepower at the belt drive all driven by an8.2 litre two cylinder engine.  There are different statistics on the transmission.  It was either a two forward (high/low) and one reverse or 3 forward gears, and I'm not sure if it was petrol or kerosene powered. 

Later, Hart Parr tractors were absorbed by the Oliver Tractor Corporation, which then became White tractors, which was merged with AGCO-Allis to create the AGCO brand. The White name continued on under AGCO until 2021 at which point, the line was absorbed into the Massey Ferguson brand of AGCO products.  Phew, a long line of mergers !

This painting has a Certificate of Authenticity attached to the back of the painting as proof
this is my genuine, original 'one-of-a-kind' artwork.