AGRICULTURAL SHOWS

Great Yorkshire Show

I had been intending to pay a first visit to this year’s Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate and after entering a competition I was fortunate to win a family ticket. The weather was quite good so I had an enjoyable day photographing plenty of reference for future paintings. It was mainly judging for the beef classes on the day I visited although I intend to join the Yorkshire Agricultural Society and attend for more days next year. The photos show two Limousin brothers and a group of my favourite Highland Cattle calves.

Great Eccleston Show

A local agricultural show for me and with previously good access to the stock it is one of my favourites although I wonder if it’s because my foil wrapped sausage sandwich is still warm when I arrive! The initial weather was terrible and it did clear up whilst I stayed dry in the car with coffee and the warm sausage sandwich. It was judging for the dairy classes on the day I chose and I got some terrific shots of Ayrshire’s which I’m looking forward to painting. Some of the Ayrshire’s were a feisty crowd and the one pictured below ended up having a moody, doing the splits and ending up in the advertising hoardings, recovering fully and going on to enter the judging ring to win the class – result! I love the unpredictability of show animals and I’m on hand to capture events as they unfold.

Royal Welsh Show

As I have to book a room so much in advance I take a risk on what the weather might be doing. However, fortunately I managed to choose the best day and especially so when I saw the Glastonbury style mud bath of the final day! Again there was excitement during the Highland Cattle judging when one Highland lady suddenly freaked and it’s all credit to the handler that he managed to hang on to her and she did calm down. I thought I was going to witness the handler being gored and I was grateful to be the other side of the barrier.

Art in the Pen 2010

It was another busy weekend during “Art in the Pen” at the Auction Mart at Skipton. As this was my second time my hessian backdrop was pre-cut from last year although it still took three hours to set up. It was a busy preview evening where the visitors were entertained by a live orchestra and the mayor was also in attendance.

I’ve got a few ideas for improvements in the way my work is displayed for next year’s show if I am selected and that will hopefully make it quicker to set up. I met a couple of customers from last year and a lot of familiar faces although I feel that a good proportion of the 8000 visitors over the weekend must have asked me the question “how long does it take to do?”

I was very surprised to be awarded the award for “Artist of the Year” and my rosette now adorns Elton – the large soft calf I took to entertain the children from last year. I also won a large wallet of Pro Arte brushes generously donated by the Art Shop at Skipton.

REDPOLLS

Recently I had an opportunity to visit a small herd of Redpoll cattle in Suffolk. They are a lovely chestnut coloured dual purpose type cattle which are not too large and as I hadn’t seen them before I was very pleased to be able to take some photographs. Two of the heifers were in calf and although the births were imminent they unfortunately didn’t oblige for me whilst I was there.