Acrylic painting as competitive sport

Two young and rather stylish men rolled a joint against a Potrero Hill brick wall as the rest of us waited in line to get into the Great Northern nightclub. The early arrivals for the 7 p.m. Art Battle speed-painting competition shivered on the sidewalk, bundled up in our strongest winter wear. When the doors finally opened, the boring brick exterior gave way to an Art Deco-meets-Muir Woods wonderland. The chilly wait had been worth it.

Art Battle has been going on in cities around the world in various iterations for years, but it arrived in San Francisco only last month. The concept is simple — 12 artists competed in two rounds. Each group of six was given 20 minutes, a canvas and acrylic paints, while hundreds watched them feverishly get to work. Audience votes dictated the two winners of each round, and those final four compete in a 15-minute painting showdown.

I’ve never been to Art Battle New York or Art Battle Toronto, but Art Battle San Francisco was downright fabulous. The Great Northern really lent itself to the event, namely because there is a giant wooden floor-to-ceiling beam smack dab in the middle of what I imagine is normally the nightclub dance floor. The top of the beam is decorated like a rustic tree, complete with well-lit branches covered in leaves. Around its base, a small circular stage had been built and filled with six large art easels. So basically, competing painters worked while they stood, elevated around this massive wooden tree trunk.

Meanwhile, Art Deco sconces lined just about every available wall surface, save for the spaces that were taken up by backlit stained glass displays. Bars served up vintage-themed cocktails, beer and wine while people ate burgers and burritos from a food truck near the bouncers at the front door. A disco ball hung from the ceiling, likely because if you’re mixing Art Deco with evening woods, you might as well throw in a disco ball. Art Battle organizers projected a large timer, so both the crowd and the competitors would know just how much time remained on the masterpiece-making.

When artist Nora Bruhn heard about Art Battle, she knew right away that we needed one in San Francisco. Active in the live-painting circuit, which according to Bruhn is a big thing at music festivals, Bruhn contacted the national Art Battle team and soon found herself producing the event last Thursday, March 1.

“I want to lasso more people into the art scene by getting the audience involved,” Bruhn said. “I feel like the audience connects way more to the process than the finished product.”

Bruhn, high energy in a fringed poncho, hugged me goodbye before jetting off to organize her second round of artists. That group of six painters included one lucky competitor selected from willing audience members. All other artists had to apply in advance online for the chance to compete — and they came prepared. As most of the audience “tornadoed” in a slow-moving, constantly Instagramming train around the competing painters, it was hard not to notice the surprisingly high quality of their 20-minute work. I was particularly enamored of artist Jun Yang’s brightly colored elephant portrait, a wall-worthy piece that Yang completed in minutes.

The crowd was just as cool as much of the artwork — and perhaps just as interesting. Couples on first or second dates conveniently avoided conversation by falling into a mesmerized trance of watching artists dip brushes into shiny piles of paint and splash it across canvases. Men with complicated hairstyles and women in platform sneakers mingled far more stylishly than the rest of us could ever hope to be. A man in a cape made noticeable rounds, carefully studying each piece of artwork in mid-completion.

“OK, I’m giving this an A-plus when it comes to street style,” gushed my date for the night, Chronicle Style reporter Tony Bravo.

We found a leather banquette, perfect for people- and painting-watching. Crowds swirled around us, around that big wooden beam tree stage. As the night wore on, we weren’t so much paying attention to which artist was winning as we were enjoying the scene. Bravo eventually excused himself, but not to leave. Instead, he wanted to take a video of Bruhn twirling in her fringed poncho. Because inside that Potrero Hill nightclub last Thursday night, art and excitement — and young San Francisco — were everywhere.

“I want to lasso more people into the art scene by getting the audience involved. I feel like the audience connects way more to the process than the finished product.” Nora Bruhn, Art Battle producer