The canvas cannons fire tonight.
On the contested fields of B.C.'s arts scene, a clash of colour will spill the blood of the palette until only one is left standing. Our soldier in that fight is Christina Watts. She flies the Prince George banner at the provincial finals of Art Battle BC. The brush drops at 7 p.m. at the Red Room Ultra Bar on Richards Street in Vancouver.
"I'm excited. So excited," said Watts just before departure. She admitted there was one blush of superstition in her emotional abstraction, but she overcame it. "I broke my palette knife during my practice sessions, and suddenly I was worried about that. You want to take the one you used to win. But forget that, I'm all good now, I went to SpeeDee Printers and got some much better ones. I'm feeling really good about it."
Watts earned her way into the provincial finals by taking top honours at the regional Art Battle in September. All Art Battle events follow the same format: heats are held whereby groups of artists have 20 minutes to whip up the best canvas painting they can muster. They are arranged in a circle, under spotlights, with music pumping and a paying audience watching and reacting as they go. The audience votes the best ones on into the final round where they paint again that same night, and this time the votes decide the final winner.
The Art Battle concept is new to Prince George. Before Watts, the winners were Cliff Mann who went on to make the provincial finals, and the first was Corey Hardeman who went on to win the provincial finals and represent British Columbia at the national Art Battle.
Watts feels the pressure of past Prince George success, but she feels well prepared to maintain this region's high standards in the Art Battle world.
"I have been practicing," she said confidently. "I've been doing two paintings a night for a month - not every single night, but steadily. I was just trying to figure out what will work and what won't. I have figured out which images I want to do, but that's not the challenge. What you still have to work on is the best techniquing, the actual work involved in making the concepts work within the 20 minutes. Your body has to know those strokes. You're going to be in front of a live audience, and your body has to know how to do the work without thinking about that."
Watts chatted with Mann about what she should expect in Vancouver. She made contact with friends and family to draw in some friendly faces in that unfamiliar room she'll be in. She's doing whatever she can to have helpful momentum.
"You have to expect the unexpected," she said. "They have a much different art community down there. I'm the only one from this far north. They have one artist there from Kamloops, one from Chilliwack, and the bulk are from the Lower Mainland. I'm sort of by myself, but for this sort of event that isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as you are prepared to paint. I know even at the Prince George event where you know most of the other artists and a lot of the people in the audience, everything just sort of disappears and it's you and the canvas."
It is a flying trip in and out of Vancouver. With common work and family obligations, she hasn't the time to make a holiday out of the excursion. Besides, she said, she will be as excited to return and tell her kids all about the feelings and sensations as they are now excited to wave goodbye to their art-star mom setting off on this adventure.
"It's one of those life experiences where you get to look back and say to yourself yes, I did that, what a unique experience. Just have fun."
