Artists battle it out in Sydney art competitions

Large crowds, loud music, and time pressure aren't typically considered the best environments for artistic expression. But in Sydney, on-stage art battles are turning painting into competitive entertainment. Artists are taking part in a new type of competition where their painting skills will be tested to their limits. In just 20 minutes, they need to come up with a work of art and convince the live audience to vote for them. “It shows a lot of talent. You need a lot of skill,” an audience member said. For more than a year now, the Art Battle events have been taking place in warehouses and creative spaces across Sydney. And the artists who take part in them, like Pamela Woods, often take weeks to get battle-ready. “It's fantastic. I have to work to a deadline. My art battle’s coming up, oh my god. And you just start painting in a mad flurry, and that's really worked for me, it's been fantastic,” she says. For Woods, it’s all about challenging herself and her talents. “It's like this adrenaline rush that you get and you paint furiously for 20 minutes. You don't know what all your competitors are doing. And then your heart's thumping, and then you wait for the results, and then you start painting again. And by the end of it, you're absolutely exhausted, drenched in sweat, but it's a lot of fun,” she says. For Robert Porta, this type of competition is a way to test himself in the art world. “You've got people, all the crowd, walking around you so you can hear the voices saying ‘Oh, this is good, this is not good. Oh, I love this. What's going to be?’ Because they don't know what you are going to paint,” says Porta. The art battles are growing in popularity, but raise the question: can true art be competitive? “I think it can be competitive. I think competition is very healthy,” says a female audience member. “I think it's amazing that they could pull something like that off in, was it 20 minutes?” concludes a male audience member. This article was provided by The Associated Press.