Looking back while looking forward to the Art on the Green

 

Tiffany Asher, [email protected]

By nature, I’m not a very competitive person so I never really gave Art on the Green a thought. Going against other artists scared me, plus I wasn’t sure I could handle the 24-hour live competition.

 

In 2015, they announced a Battle on the Green. It was only a few hours of speed painting. Even though I was not extremely competitive, this sounded like fun! I wanted to try it, even if I did not win anything.

I signed up for it and practiced speed painting from my home, trying to do a painting at least once every night up until the battle. Come the day of Battle on the Green, I left work a little early to go down to Expedition Island and test my luck!

My first painting was “Historic Perspective” and loving Asian culture, I painted the Osaka Castle, one of Japan’s most famous landmarks and it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century. I had won that round. The next round was “Life on the Green”. If anyone knows me, I love painting/drawing birds. When this round came up, I immediately thought of the gigantic Sandhill Crane that my husband and I came across when fishing the Sweetwater River a few years back.

That image won me the Battle on the Green and was the first winner of the first annual Battle on the Green.

After that was completed, I decided to stay around and see what was happening inside during the Art on the Green competition. I had heard about it but didn’t really know much. As I entered the Pavilion, I was greeted with dozens of artists from here and other places. They all congratulated me. After a while, I had come to the decision I would try this out next year.

 

The next year, I entered Art on the Green and Battle on the Green. I got to meet a ton of different artists that year. I was placed between “Professional” artists, while I was in the “Semi-Pro” section. I was able to talk with them and mingle while I worked on my painting. This all started at about 7 a.m. and we painted, walked around, talked, ate, just enjoyed other’s conversations. At 4:00 p.m. the Battle on the Green had begun.

I was not as successful with the Battle this time around, but the experience was so exciting! I went back to the other competition and kept working on my painting.

The next day at 11 a.m., the competition was over. We had to place our paintbrushes and tools down and get our 2-D and 3-D pieces ready to be judged. We all left while the pieces were judged and did our own things.

At night, there was a banquet that would announce winners. Being my first time, I never thought much about it. It was nice to have a wonderful dinner and hang out with all these people I just met.

Towards the end of the night, to my surprise, my name was called. That year I had won second place for the Artists’ Choice Award! I could not believe I won anything.

 

Since then, I have always gone back. For those two days, it’s just me and my art. I have been back a few more times, painting a bald eagle, an owl and last time was a wolf.

Since Covid-19 hit last year, they did not have the competition and I must admit, I was sad about that. It has become my way of relaxing and making art without much distraction. If I am able to, I will always attend this event as long as it is hosted.