They call it Art Battle. It’s international and this event was held in the fab Trinity Centre in Bristol. The concept? 12 artists compete against each other and the clock. You have 20 minutes to complete a painting without any visual aids, with only your eyes and mind for inspiration. The audience vote for who wins and there’s a silent auction selling the finished pieces. Sound scary? It was. It was also extremely epic!
You know when you hear about things that -other people do- and think to yourself, ‘Ooooo, I’d love to do that if I was braver,’ ? This was one of those things. If the idea of painting in 20 minutes wasn’t enough pressure, certainly the reality that I had to do it in front of an audience was going to send me over the edge! I may be a sucker for these kind of ‘sink or swim’ type senarios, where you feel like you have to force yourself to magically pull something out of a bag, but you don’t know if it’s going to be a cute bunny or a stink bomb. I’m not usually a thrill seeker. I’m not good with heights and I drive quite slowly. Turns out live competitive painting is my thing!
My nervousness manifesting itself into shoeless dancing antics. Oh me, oh my.
To be honest, it was all a blur. It all kicked off with a countdown from 10 at the start and I realised I could hardly paint straight because of my jittery hand. I poured all my energy and soul onto my canvas and after 15 minutes the hand of what felt like an angel’s grabbed my arm and I heard a calming voice whisper, “Stop”. I -think- that actually happened? After the 20 minutes, I felt happy with what I’d done. I felt like crying my emotions were so high, my mind didn’t know what was happening. I just collapsed into the arms of some dear friends that had come to support me.
I won my round, I won my round! I can go home now right? Uh Oh . . . The beautiful people of Bristol had voted me to paint in the final and after about four pints of water, a mouthful of delicious vegan food from #firmlyplanted_uk, I was set to join the three other finalists to once again pour out our hearts on our canvases for the high energy love fest of artiness.
I felt eyes watching, heard the chatter of people milling around and critiquing my decisions. I had to admit to myself the creeping yet powerful feeling of . . . I actually want to win! What was this?! I really wanted to win this! For my friends that came to support me . . . for the friends who wished me luck. I wanted to bring home the coveted golden paintbrush to show my son, who’s last words before heading off to camp with school were, “Good luck at Art Battle Mum!” I wanted to show my little daughter that her Mum was good enough. I wanted to suprise my husband with a symbol that his belief in me had made a difference. And tell my Mum that finally, after coming second place in a drawing competition when I was three at nursery school, that I’d won. I’d drawn a picture of a cat playing the violin. I mean, c’mon . . .
When the golden evnvelope was opened and my name was announced, louder than I’d ever heard it before (and pronounced correctly) I felt like I was in this cool, edgy dream where I won. But I actually did win!
But of course, being an artist (there, I said it) the best part wasn’t really about that moment, but meeting the other artists, hearing about their journeys, painting instinctively from the heart about things that your soul agonises over and feeling bare to be judged. Would I do it again? I’d encourage everyone to!
Actually, the best bit -was- winnning. Who am I trying to kid.
https://artbattle.com/