Art / Art Battle Bristol
Preview: Art Battle Grand Final (Anson Rooms, March 26)
This month sees the grand finale of the first series of Art Battle Bristol, the live competitive art event which each month sees 12 artists pitted together to create art in 20 minutes, with audiences voting on a winner each night. All the winners to date will go head-to-head at the Grand Final, on March 26 at the Bristol University Student Union.
Douglas Karson, creator of Art Battle Bristol, takes up the story. “The format came into being after I saw a friend in the States doing something like this. We decided to make it happen here and began recruiting artists to come paint with us. We’ve been really lucky to have so many talented and amazing painters come and share their skills with us and the audience.”
With the help of countless volunteers, a loyal audience, and some committed sponsors in Daler-Rowney, who have provided all art materials for artists at Art Battles across the UK), Douglas and the team have been able to build toward their first Bristol Grand Finale to send a winner onto the National Final in September (Bristol is the first regional final).
is needed now More than ever
Each month, Art Battle Bristol pits 12 artists together to create art in 20 minutes, with audiences voting on a winner each night
From that national final, one winner will travel to Tokyo for October’s International Final, competing against artists from over 30 countries will be represented.
“We are so thrilled to have begun in Bristol, and to be hosting the first regional final,” Douglas enthuses. “After two years of events, excitement, action and art, we have got the winners out of the studio for an awesome night of celebrating community, creativity and artists. After our sold-out final battle of Season 1, on 26th March at the Anson Rooms in the student union, paint will fly as our winners go brush to brush.”
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Those winners include Ian Price, an RWA, Mall Galleries and Holburne Portrait Prize-exhibiting artist; mural artist Andrew Burns Colwill, whose large canvases contain political and ecological commentary; Sophie Galliers, who creates colourful Expressionist portraits and collaborates with scientists; Millie Gleeson, a portraitist known for her expressions of feminine power; and Luke Edgar, who is known for his high detail tattoos and haunting use of black and white to convey moods and ideas.
Alongside and running up to the Grand Finale, from mid-March onward Art Battle Bristol will be showcasing studio pieces from its 11 Season 1 winners at its first pop-up gallery, in the Galleries in the city centre.
A portion of the gross income from the event, and from the exhibition leading up to the event it, will be donated to Children’s Hospice South West, which provides an essential service to families with children who have terminal illness.
“It has been an amazing and wild ride to get here,” Douglas reflects. “We’ve seen artists with faces covered in paint, artists dancing barefoot and others literally throwing paint at the canvas!
“Some finish ten minutes early and stand and have a drink and a chat while others feel like the time has evaporated into the ether. Artists on the floor, paintings on the floor, laughter and tears: it’s always a night of drama.”
Art Battle Bristol Grand Final March 26, Anson Rooms. For more info, visit artbattle.com/events/ab2078-bristol
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