Art Battle @ the Gladstone

Last night I went to an ‘art battle’ at the Gladstone hotel in Toronto, which was the opening event for the Queen West Art Crawl. The art battle was a free event, except for my $7 glass of red wine of course, and was a pretty full house of artists and art lovers. The venue is as beautiful as always, and I think it was a fantastic location to kick off the Art Crawl. I was so pumped to be a part of an event like this, and am really glad that I went.

How an art battle works is that there are specially chosen artists who come on stage and paint on quite large canvases freely, for 20 minute periods, “battling” against each other. At this battle, there were 4 rounds of 2 painters at a time, where the 4th round was a final competition for the two highest scored painters. The audience is able to vote for which painting they like the best at the end of each round and there is also a silent auction for the paintings.

The beauty of an event like this comes from taking something which is usually very personal and then immersing it into a public situation. Painting can be an extremely individual and private art form, but at an event like this the artists are able to share that with a large group of people. Art battles seem to evolve – or create something entirely new – from painting, by adding in a social network environment. The audience then becomes involved in the piece of work being created in front of them, directly or indirectly.

Below is my take on the night, but I’m not an art critic at all, I just love it! Any comments or opinions are always welcome.

Round 1

Eric Cheung vs. Marco Bertuzzo

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Eric and Marco were really fun to watch. Eric’s style I found to be very textured and vibrant, with details in the facial expressions, skin tones and background buildings. He then surprised us all by inserting this ghost/demon looking guy peaking out of the building, which gives it a really fun, youthful and modern feeling to the painting.

Marco’s painting is very vivid, with a strong yellow background that cannot be resisted. It seemed like Marco was going with his feelings, and did not do much pre-planning, which was great to watch. The strength of his painting lies in the eyes of the figure, which are so extremely powerful. The outcome of this match was Marco winning, but I’d say this was a tough call!

Round 2

Jamie Ashforth vs. Tania Iskiw

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Round two was fantastic! The two styles between these women were completely different, and it was ridiculously intriguing to watch how painters can form such a vast range of techniques for their individual style. Jamie’s focus seemed to be on the abstract, her texture and the pastel colour scheme. It takes quite an eye to master a green pastel such as the one in her painting, and I really liked how she didn’t leave any white space on the canvas. From the beginning she started by glossing her entire canvas with colour. Tania’s painting, which I really liked, is completely different. The chaos and madness of her work is totally in contrast with that of Jamie’s. I enjoyed watching Tania paint because she kept flipping the canvas upside down, side ways, and any which way she wanted to add to her piece of work. Jamie ended up winning this round, but I thought both were really great.

Round 3

Bryan Belanger vs. King Wong

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I absolutly loved Bryan’s painting (the blue one). First of all, he was so entertaining to watch paint. He had war paint on, and then whipped out a pair of sponges to do his background work. I really want to try that next time I paint. His work is just adorable, and overall really fun and contemporary. King’s technique was quite interesting to watch as well, as he used many hard tools to carve the paint for his figure. This round was great to watch because it was clear these two really knew what they were doing and were comfortable using any tools or means necessary to get what they wanted out of their piece.

Round 4: Champion Match Off!

Jamie Ashforth (from round 2) vs. Bryan Belanger (from round 3)

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Round 4 was absolutely amazing! Jamie and Bryan were by far the funnest to watch and the most entertaining. I love both their painting styles, despite how really different they are. I thought Bryan’s painting was beautiful, and charming at the same time. Putting the face in the trees like he did in the previous round was really cute. Jamie’s painting was gorgeous, with absolutely stunning colour and texture throughout. Jamie really has an eye for the beauty of paint and she has complete control over it. I loved watching her take a few steps back, and then dive into her painting, being able to completely manipulate it as she desired.

In the end, Jamie won by audience votes, but all the painters were really fantastic. I’m so glad I was able to take part in such an awesome event, and I look forward to more art battles in the future.

There is an art battle at Queen’s park on Wednesday at 12:15, as well as one coming up in early October. I suggest for anyone interested to check those out, as well as the other events being hosted by Art Crawl! Check out artbattleto.com for more details, or join their facebook group.