Ottawa Art Battle

        Local and visiting amateur painters battled it out in the national Art Battle competition on Tuesday, Sept. 18. The A.B. gives amateur artists a platform to get their artwork out there and provides them with the exposure they seek on a national scale. Unlike other art shows, A.B. does not charge artists at all to compete but instead allows them to make a profit by selling the pieces that they create to the highest bidder at the end of the night. The competition has 3 rounds, in each, six artists have 20 minutes to paint whatever they want while under constant surveillance of a circling audience. After the 20 minutes are up the audience is in charge of picking which two paintings they like best to move unto the third and final round in which only one person is selected the winner, moving on to the competition between each city and after that on to the nationals for a chance to become the Canadian A.B. champion.

         Last year's Ottawa A.B. winner, Natalie Rivet, describes the showcase as stressful and far more competitive than any other art shows she has been apart of, she likens it to “the Olympics for artists”. Rivet has competed in the Art Battle twice before, winning the competition in Ottawa and going onto the city finals last September. Natalie says she continues to compete because she “loves that it gives her a space to paint freely as well as another platform besides social media to showcase (her) artwork”. Natalie paints Figurative art but loves that the A.B. allows painters of different styles to compete against each other. Event organizer and indigenous artist himself, Peter Purdy, says that A.B started with just a few artists challenging each other to ‘paint-offs’ in small Toronto pubs. “One of the beautiful things about Art Battle is that it’s artist owned and run… we supply everything...We see artists as partners and not commodities”.

        This supportive yet competitive competition is also what drove, up-and-coming portrait artist, Jinju Kong, to compete for her second time in this year’s A.B. In her last A.B., Kong won the New Brunswick title and moved on to compete for her city. She says that A.B. gives her confidence, it is not everyday you have to speed-paint and it has provided her with a lot more opportunities. This is what brought her back after moving to Ottawa, also her curiosity for the artistic style of Ottawa. Not knowing what to expect, Kong says her strategy is always to plan what she will paint before hand. Astonishingly though, In the end, neither of our previous victors took home the Ottawa Championship that night, instead it was Sarah Deas, a visiting amateur painter from Toronto and first time Art Battle competitor. Sarah stated that she usually paints animals but took a risk that night and decided to paint a portrait of her close friends 91-year-old grandfather. She truly symbolizes what this event stands for, an even playing ground and a chance to prove yourself.