Thursday, May 7, 2020

Art Battle Manchester


Art Battle Manchester was a performance event in Manchester, England, where a group of artists competed in an event where they produce a painting in 30 minutes or less.


Fun idea! But I'm not sure how such a gathering will fare in the post-pandemic era.

11 comments:

Virginia Fhinn said...

Wow, that guy did a sweet portrait in 30 mins, and it was huge!

Howie Green said...

I participated in the Art Battle in Boston the week before everything shut down which makes me shutter now. I didn't win but my painting sold. Really fun event with a great crowd but I would be terrified to even consider doing such an event again.
Howie Green

brine blank said...

That is pretty awesome...I'd be like the sloth on the Geico commercial and get a 'coin slot' on the paper. Hopefully that will be a show that some American station gets the rights to and they make over here...so long as they don't try to turn it into a 'political message show'.

Greg Preslicka said...

Art as competition is a tough concept for many artist to get behind. Plein air competitions have become popular but I still hear some artist think they are exploitive. It makes artists into performers. I don't share these worries. I have been developing an Art Team idea for high school students. The concept is to have teams of students compete with other schools on creative challenges. It would be structured like school sports that are both team and individual like track or golf. Students would meet and be presented with creative challenges they have to solve as a team. An example would be having teams create a mural that represents Unity. There could be constraints like teams can only use 2 colors or cut paint with their hands. After an allotted time judges would determine a winner. To add an individual element a challenge of possible similar theme would be sent to students a week early. They would have a week to create a piece of art they feel represents the theme and also expresses their personal style. I think it could pull in students who don't think of themselves as "artists" but are creative thinkers and want to work as part of the team.

Unknown said...

I really wish some American production company would do a US version of SKY arts Portrait artist of the year. Such a simple concept yet so very compelling.

Roca said...

You could do something like this in a livestream. There are a lot of cartoonists on YouTube that attempt to draw each others' characters during live video, or draw things from memory, etc. I enjoy watching them. I don't think it should be an actual judged contest though, I just enjoy seeing what they come up with.

James Gurney said...

Roca, I agree, the idea of competition without a winner is a good one. Buzzfeed has done some fun YouTube videos with an animator vs. a cartoonist doing an assignment chosen at random. Although they can't see what each other is doing, they talk during the process and encourage each other. They've recently softened the competition by having them work on separate topics, which isn't as fun.

GeraldS said...

How sad is it to need to reference "post epidemic". Hopefully we can all adapt to doing the things we love differently, as fast as we had to adapt to do things them differently in less than two months. I see a lot of creativity born of these restrictions, that is very Cool!
thanks for the Vid!

juliem said...

Right now SKY arts is presenting Portrait Artist of the week. Every Sunday they shoot a live Facebook video with the presenters, a past winner and a model -- each on video from their respective homes. Anyone can paint along and post their pictures to Instagram by the following Friday. I think they have two more weeks left.

Carlos Taveras said...

James, we need you to pick by the brush and battle it out for 30. I think you will be crowned.

truckingwrite said...

At a drop in life group I go to the model does one and two minute poses, quick pieces like these would transfer well as part of an event like this. The whole thing is a great idea and I hope it spreads beyond metropolitan areas