Royal Queensland Show - Ekka Residency Day 1

Today was my first day as Artist in Residence at the Royal Queensland Show 2016.

My plan is to draw and paint on location at the Ekka and record as much as I can visually, sort of like a visual correspondent. These small vignettes can later be worked up into something larger in the studio, although the freshness and authenticity of the on location sketch is all I am aiming for at this stage.

It is only two days since I arrived back in Brisbane from my stint in Manchester teaching at the Urban Sketching Symposium (more about that in another blog post). Still not fully functioning on all cylinders due to jet lag.

Today my plan was to just get a feel of the atmosphere once again. I spent the morning in Side-Show Alley just inside the Bowen Bridge Road gate.

I just grabbed a few images from different directions, the grandfather on the right, the carousel and a couple of tents in the background. A bit of a warm up sketch.

By this stage I had received a call from ABC TV who wanted to film me working and do a quick interview so I stayed in that general area. This second image is of a couple of the rides outside the Show-bag Pavilion. This is the one that features in the TV news from tonight. 

I intend to get to as many parts of the Show as possible and I know from past years that the big cows are only there for a couple of days. After the judging is done they vanish and I was determined to capture them early in the piece.

These ladies ( Herefords) were all lying down tired after  their judging so were relatively still. The owner was very happy for me to sit next to her and work. 

This one was quite quick as the cows (Shorthorns) were shuffling around and soon they all stood up and were marched off somewhere.

My overall impression of the day was that many things have changed. The Ekka evolves each year. I find it wonderful to get up close to animals particularly big ones. I think I will try and do a mixture of subjects each day. There is simply so much visual information in every direction you care to look. 

It is a great privilege to be able to do this.

And finally a picture of me at work.

Robyn Bauer