Luke Thurgate creates temporary drawing at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery

And then?

"It'll be here for the duration of the exhibition [Dobell Drawing Prize #23, which opens on Friday night] and then it'll just be sugar-soaped away," he said.

"A couple of coats of paint and you'll never know it was here."

Mr Thurgate was a finalist in the 2023 Dobell Drawing Prize, which is on a tour whose first stop is Bathurst.

"I was silly enough, cavalier enough, brave enough to enter a wall drawing to the prize," he said.

"I made a version of this work and entered it as indicative, but suggested that if they [judges] selected me as a finalist I would make it straight on to the gallery wall as a temporary, ephemeral kind of artwork.

"For me, conceptually, that's something that I'm kind of really interested in."

Mr Thurgate began his work on Thursday as the Dobell Drawing Prize #23 exhibition artworks were installed in the gallery around him.

The idea of so much labour going into something so fleeting, in an art gallery, "is something that folks tend not to encounter all that much", he said.

"It's interesting because if you think about music and theatre, there's months of rehearsal and prep for often a short run of performances and then it just disappears back into the world," Mr Thurgate said.

But he said there is a different assumption of permanence for an artwork at a gallery.

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery audience engagement officer Lilium Burrow said the Dobell exhibition is touring from the National Art School in Sydney.

"It's 45 finalists' works in the exhibition and each artist is responding to the question: what is drawing?" she said.

"There's all sorts of different outcomes to that: there's drawing, there's sculpture."

One work features teabags, while another uses thread as the drawing line.

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The exhibition's free opening night will be held from 6pm on Friday, September 1 and will be open to the community, featuring live music, a drawing demonstration from Mr Thurgate, food and refreshments.

Mr Thurgate will then be continuing his drawing this Saturday and Sunday, September 2 and 3 during the gallery opening hours from 10am to 2pm.

"Visitors can come in, pull up a stool and observe and even have a chat with the artist if they want to," Ms Burrow said.

As well, she said one of the gallery's free regular Sunday Sketch Sessions this weekend will coincide with Mr Thurgate's time at the gallery.

"It's totally free. You don't have to book, you can just rock up," she said of the sessions.

"We've got drawing materials. You can find a spot in the gallery and draw whatever you want - you can draw some of the artworks, you can draw the gallery walls.

"This Sunday, we will have that one while Luke is drawing. That's a really, really special opportunity to draw alongside a finalist in this prize and a really brilliant artist."

As well, Ms Burrow said Mr Thurgate will host respective masterclasses for adults and teenagers in early October.

"We also have a really great education kit that comes with this exhibition, so all schools are invited to book in to come and have a look and explore," she said.

The gallery's acting exhibitions co-ordinator Alex Robinson said she was pleased to have Dobell Drawing Prize #23 in Bathurst.

"We are excited about hosting this exhibition. It's coming together really beautifully," she said.

AS the Dobell Drawing Prize #23 exhibition opens inside Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, a separate exhibition will be opening in the foyer outside.

Blayney's Laura Baker has a collection of paper works in which she has created images through fine cuts.

She describes Corrugated Town as "a celebration of the unique urban-scape of country towns: corrugated panelling and powerlines, satellite dishes".

According to Bathurst Regional Art Gallery audience engagement officer Lilium Burrow, part of the detail of the pieces are the shadows within them.

Ms Baker said she describes her work as "drawing with a knife".

Corrugated Town, like Dobell Drawing Prize #23, will open at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery at 6pm on Friday, September 1.

The opening will be a free community event, but RSVP is essential. Visit the gallery website.

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