'Who's the animal here?': Renowned artists Rodney Pople and Euan McLeod coming to the Western Plains Cultural Centre

After many months of research, both are ready to unveil their interpretations of the rare wildlife at Dubbo's popular zoo, based on the idea of how the species, for example, the lion and the zebra might react when people ogle at them in their protected habitats.

Pople says he and McLeod observed the animals' habits and were ecstatic they had an opportunity to explore the lives of animals in a zoo in contrast to the herds they've seen on safaris in Africa where exotic wildlife freely roam their environment.

"The animals play up to the humans, and I imagine they think we look ridiculous with our silly hats and cameras around our necks munching on ice creams," Pople said.

"The memory and smell and just observing the animals' habits, watching without camera or paint are most amazing. I did a lot of work from photographs, that's how I often work and also did plein air."

Pople is enjoying the summer while working in London and McLeod works a typical day for artists, thus our conversations take different time zones, but yarns are topically focused on their Dubbo exhibition.

"Dubbo zoo is great and animals have plenty of space. We were trying to bring across the point of view in this series of works on how the animals might feel about being stared at," Pople said.

Pople and McLeod are multi-awarded painters with a bevy of Australia's highest awards for artists - Archibald Prize, Sulman & Wynne Prize, Glover Prize, Tattersall's Prize, Gallipolli Prize, Doug Moran Prize, Portia Geach Memorial Award and Black Swan Portrait Prize.

Their works are hung at the National Art Gallery in Sydney and Melbourne, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Artbank, Art Gallery of NSW, and leading regional and university galleries.

For their Dubbo exhibition that opens on Saturday, 1 October at the Western Plains Cultural Centre, McLeod said their collection is coming along fine even though it's his first foray into interpreting animals at a zoo.

McLeod visited Dubbo's zoo in 2019 and the exhibition's idea sprung. "I've never painted animals before but [curator] Kent [Buchanan] took a leap of faith on what we can do, he didn't limit us down, and let's be honest [those animals] are not in their natural environment," McLeod said.

As formidable artists, their zoo visit expanded to produce a collection of drawings that explores the "notions of captivity and freedom" for zoo animals as well as who might be dominant, the human or the animal.

"For me, it was interesting of them looking at us instead of me looking at them," McLeod said.

"Sometimes the question is who is the animal here?"

But on the lighter side of this exhibition is the artists' notions of the growing city in the middle of the state's west which they are excitedly looking forward to revisiting during the exhibition.

"It's a beautiful town, Dubbo has such a beautiful gallery and the space is wonderful," Mcleod says. "A lot of regional galleries here like the ones in Mudgee and Orange are creative spaces in terms of shows and its brilliant they are involving the public."

The Dubbo visit also took the artists out of their comfort zones as they worked "many nights and over many drinks" at their Sydney studios and come back with their collection to show their audiences here.

"The fact it was a collaboration for the two of us we bouncing ideas between us, Rodney would seek mine and I would seek his," McLeod said.

"He pushed me to do bigger and better work, most of my stuff is smaller and I am very happy we had a lot of fun doing it, and that was the ingredient."

Pople says he hopes the audiences viewing their exhibits will "see the animals' point of view and to remember that the most dangerous animal in the room is you."

"Euan and I worked really hard on the show so how many paintings? There seems a lot but that is not the point, quality is the issue and we hope to put up a really strong exhibition."

Eaun McLeod and Rodney Pople Exhibition at the Western Plains Cultural Centre opened on Saturday, 1 October and runs until 12 February 2023.

The official opening will be held on Saturday, 15 October at 2pm.