Art Battle 104: Mississauga

As the sun went down, the Living Arts Centre lit up for Mississauga's first time hosting Art Battle Canada. Featuring three rounds of live competitive painting, each contestant gets 20 minutes to create their best work on canvas, and the winners of each round are voted in by the audience until a champion is crowned. All of the paintings created that night are also put up for auction making it a great way for art enthusiasts to start or add to their collection.  

Here are some pics of the inaugural Mississauga event:

Living Arts Centre resident artist Natasha Gouveia prepares her painting station for round one.

The supply table offered lots of colour options for the contestants as well as various tools like paintbrushes, rollers and palette knives. 

Although participating artists are selected in advance, the competition also leaves some "wildcard" spots open to give audience members an opportunity to join in the art making. Here's the wildcard painting station from round one. (Special shout-out to my co-worker Brian who has zero visual art experience but threw his hat into the ring anyways and competed in round two!)

As the timer begins, Living Arts Centre fellow Anya Mielniczek lays the groundwork for a unique, abstract portrait that scores her a spot in the final round. 

In round two, Brampton artist Kim Lee Kho paints her own figurative work featuring a rich colour palette as well as heavy shapes and shadows. 

Art Battle veteran Aleks Bartosik has no problem with the 20-minute time frame as she quickly gets to work creating a stunning portrait that moves her into the final round. 

A close up of Aleks' canvas from round two and a hotly bid on item for the night. 

The final round came down to just four painters: Natasha Gouveia, Anya Mielniczek, Aleks Bartosik and Kim Lee Kho. I started snapping pics at Alek's station before making the rounds to the other three contestants...

When I came back to Aleks' post 10 minutes later, her canvas had evolved into this!

The juxtaposition of vibrant colours and bold texture along with the alluring imagery was too hard to resist - Aleks once again takes the Art Battle crown!

Art Battle returns to Mississauga on May 1st and I can't wait to see which artists will turn out to compete this time. Being able to watch all of these local emerging and professional painters work live was such a treat and it officially makes Art Battle my new favourite form of live entertainment!

Will you be coming out on May 1st?

♥

(All images by Lai Mai Ng)