When Chantelle Delage signed up for the Art Battle competition at Evolve Nightclub on Jan. 26, she didn’t exactly know what she was getting into.
“I hadn’t seen anything like that on the Island, so [I] jumped on it right away,” the VIU fine arts grad said.
“You had to apply and they get back to you, so I wasn’t even sure I was going to get through the application process.”
The international speed painting competition brings painters together to face off in a live setting with 20 minutes on the clock. Artists compete through two painting rounds and winners are chosen by audience voting.
Delage saw a notice about the Nanaimo competition on her Facebook feed and decided to give it a shot. She submitted some work samples and an artist’s statement and she was invited to take part. She prepared for the event by designing two paintings, both depicting marine life, that she could create in 20 minutes, one for each round.
On the night of the Art Battle, Delage was surprised by the size of the crowd.
“I didn’t know that it was going to be so popular and then I showed up and the lineup was like around the corner and I was like, ‘Oh, OK. This is going to be harder than I thought,’” she said.
There were two rounds of six-versus-six, with the Top 2 from each round advancing to the final. The easels were arranged in a circle with onlookers circulating the floor and watching the artists. Delage, competing in the first round, drowned out the distractions with her headphones, but immediately discovered she was thrown a “curve ball:” The provided paint was different from the oils she was used to, forcing her to adjust on the spot.
She came away victorious, but said it was nerve racking waiting for the finals while the second group of six painters faced off. Twenty minutes after putting brush to paint in the final round Delage was named the winner.
“That was like the first sort of competitive art thing I’ve ever been in,” she said.
“I don’t go out and paint in front of people, so that was the first time I’ve ever done that.”
On June 8, Delage travels to the Victoria Event Centre to take on the fastest artists from Campbell River, Comox Valley and Victoria in the Art Battle Vancouver Island finals. The winner earns a spot at the national championship in Toronto in July.
She said the experience in the Nanaimo event will be helpful at the regional level. This time she said she plans to practise using the paint favoured by Art Battle so there are no surprises.
“I’ll still be nervous because now there will be a lot more artists I don’t know and people that I don’t know judging and watching me,” she said shortly after her Nanaimo victory.
“But I have enough time to plan and practise and see what I can get done and maybe try something different and push the boundaries a little bit. See if I can win it.”
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
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