The battle lines are about to be drawn, or rather, brushed. The war paint is about to be applied. The Prince George edition of Art Battle Canada happens on Friday, with prizes and a berth in the provincials on the colourful line.
The music pulses. The crowd gazes intently. The painters eye each other a bit, but when it's "go" time their attention is laser focused on the canvas before them.
Each artist has 20 minutes to speed paint their best image, with the winner of each heat (plus a wildcard painter) all moving on to the finals where they slap down another 20-minute power
painting.
Each heat has four painters. The audience votes to determine the winner of each heat (the painter who gets the highest vote total outside of the heat winners also advances).
"It's really quite dramatic. There's a lot of tension and excitement in the room when it's going on," said Lisa Redpath, program manager for the Community Arts Council, the host agency for Art Battle in Prince George. "We just love sharing the energy of Art Battle, so we hope a good crowd comes out to see these talented competitors. We get to show off the artistic talents of our community many different ways, but this is different. You're there in the room for the creative process. You watch the painters working their magic and doing it under the pressure of the clock. We've shown local people a whole other side of what it means to be an artist, and because our artists have all done so well at the provincial level, we have also shown the rest of B.C. what our arts community is capable of in Prince George. And I think, too, we've provided our local artists with an interesting challenge."
This is the fifth year for Prince George taking part in the nationwide Art Battle event. The winner of this local round goes on to Vancouver in July for the B.C. level of competition, and then that winner gets to go to the national paint fight.
Most of the competitors have rehearsed the two images they need to win Art Battle, but the heat of the crowd, the beat of the music (the house beats are provided by DJ Rubytrout), and the presence of the other competitors somehow changes the way the hand manipulates the brush as it touches the canvas.
Ask any athlete if there's a difference between the intensity of practice versus the intensity of game day and they will confirm the altered state.
The winner is always the audience.
Unlike a sport that is finished and gone when the final horn sounds, these paintings live on forever. And they are for sale, with the artist and the Community Arts Council sharing the proceeds.
This year's competitors are: Carla Joseph, Mandy Paavola, Erin Stagg, Kat Valcourt, Michael Doyle, Jordan Kelley, Christina Watts, Lisa Tosoff, Trevor Stanley, Melissa Bain, Michael Kast and Mike Rees.
They are provided with acrylic paint, and the tools allowed are brushes, palette knives or any non-mechanical implements. Almost any image is acceptable, from realism to abstract and anything in between. The preliminary rounds will be on 18-by-24-inch panels and the finals on 22-by-30-inch canvases.
"There are some new faces this year," said Redpath. "Melissa Bain is one of my favourite artists, she's been focused on motherhood the last few years but she's in this year to give it a try.
"Michael Kast is new as well. People know him as a photographer and he does the jazz show on CFIS, so we will get to see him in a new way.
"Michael Doyle is from Mackenzie, he is the president of the community arts council up there, we've been swapping ideas with him for years, so with him participating it might perhaps lead to Mackenzie having their own Art Battle one day."
Some of the competitors are past participants and even some past winners, including incumbent champion Joseph.
Cliff Mann is a past winner who also made the finals at the provincials. He won't be taking up a position at the easel, though, to the relief of the other painters. He will be there as a voter.
Everyone can be there as a voter who pays the $15 fee to watch. The event happens in the wide open interior spaces of Hub Space (1299 Third Ave.) on Friday starting at 6:30 p.m.
