Eventful Part 2: Field Trip

Following Friday's first solo hack I took part in the Gala Day on Saturday in the nearby town of Dunlop in Ayrshire. This was my first such event and little prepared me for arriving in a slightly boggy field in the early morning on a windy day and trying to turn it into a shop front for the day.

I had put in plenty of preparation work and spent much of the previous week running around like a headless chicken trying to remember at which riding stables I had left my paintings, driving across the countryside rounding them up and prop shopping to pull together my pitch. I think it paid off and by 9.30am I was set.



My pitch at Dunlop Gala Day 2011
www.equineartportraits.com

There was a great buzz about the day and the action seemed pretty non stop form what I could see, with dog shows, parades, sidesaddle riding and pipe bands to name a few. The day flew in from then until 4.30pm chatting to lots of lovely folk about mostly about their horses, dogs and my art.  The horses were a magnet to little girls in running around in jodphurs and I started to realise I a great big pile of prints of palomino ponies at pocket money prices could have been a great hit.

Dunlop Gala Day 2011, Sidesaddle show



Dunlop Gala Day 2011, Pipe Band

   

The weather was mostly as grey as it looks with a few bursts of sunshine in the afternoon, and winds strong enough to cause a little concern that my canvasses might just take off like kites, but thankfully the easels stood up well.  I sketched to keep my hands an head busy and distract myself from the cold temperatures - which had dipped 10 degrees in one day - and doodled the action of the Gala Day in my sketchbook, in between chatting with passers by and fellow stall holders. I might add some colour to it this week and send it on to the organisers of the event.

 

My view from my pitch Dunlop Gala Day 2011.

I met lots of lovely people with lots of great ideas about how and where to show my work, as well as a few other fellow artists with common interests, local equine artist Nina Russell  and a horse sculptress Karon (her blog soeasylife.com) who co-incidentally also rides Merlyn.....I am starting to think that the handsome black horse is a great big tart, just like my borrowed cat Harvey.

And so, on the back of the Gala Day I have now found the beginnings of a little local community as well as my global one, which is nice!