I read an article yesterday about a speed painter that paints giant canvases of Christ. She has become a favorite of Donald Trump and her name is Vanessa Horabuena. It’s an interesting name because the name essentially means “at a good/fortunate hour”—a propitious moment or good timing—which when used as a surname likely expressed hopes for fortune and good luck for the family line.
What is speed painting, you ask (or, at least, I asked)? Speed painting refers to creating artwork in a compressed timeframe, and it exists in several different forms. There is digital speed painting where digital artists create complete paintings in 30 minutes to a few hours, often recording the process in time-lapse. This developed as concept art and character design in order to promote practice and skill development and for demonstrating techniques. The common subjects of the paintings are most often highly recognizable and focus on fantasy characters, landscapes, portraits and sci-fi scenes. And then there is traditional fine art speed painting, which is about classical painting techniques executed quickly, like “alla prima” (wet-on-wet) painting where the work is completed in one session. Many Impressionists like Monet worked quickly to capture changing light, so in one sense he was an OG at speed painting. And then there is what Horabuena does, which is called performance speed painting. In that realm, artists create large-scale paintings live on stage, often to music, completing impressive works in 3-10 minutes. A unique characteristic of the artform is that it is often executed upside-down or abstract until the final reveal with dramatic music and theatrical presentation. The process frequently features portraits of celebrities or inspirational figures in order to increase the dramatic effect.
The upside-down technique in performance speed painting serves several specific purposes. The most notable reason is to create the dramatic reveal and thereby gain maximum impact (no wonder it so appeals to Donald Trump, right?). This makes the painting looks abstract, chaotic, or unrecognizable throughout the performance and yet, when flipped right-side-up at the end, the audience experiences a sudden “wow” moment. This surprise reveal is the emotional payoff that makes it theatrical rather than just watching someone paint. The general characterization of speed painting in the art world is that of showmanship over artistry. It transforms painting from a gradual process into a magic trick. The audience can’t follow along or anticipate the result when its all upside down and incomprehensible. It creates suspense and maintains engagement for the entire performance. It also has practical advantages in that it hides mistakes and simplifies the composition of the painting. When painting upside down, the artist relies more on measured proportions and technique rather than intuitive recognition. Minor imperfections are less noticeable when the brain can’t immediately recognize the subject and it forces the audience to focus on shapes, values, and relationships rather than “does this look like a face?”
The other thing about performative speed painting is that its easier with large-scale works with many performance paintings being 4-6 feet tall. Painting a face upside down means the top of the head (simpler shapes) is at the bottom where it’s easier to reach. The complex features (eyes, nose, mouth) end up in the middle where the artist has better control. There is generally no need for ladders or awkward overhead reaching for the most important parts when you do things this way and it creates better stage presence. The artist can face the audience while painting. The canvas orientation allows for more dynamic body movements. It all creates better sightlines for photography and video since the painter isn’t blocking the audience’s view as much. And then there’s the issue of audience engagement. People can guess what the painting might be, creating a participatory element…like a sing-a-long. It also creates social media moments (“wait for it…”) that encourages people to stay until the reveal rather than walking away mid-performance.
The whole arena really began with rock artist Denny Dent (1948-2004), who popularized this technique in the 1980s-90s. His “Two Fisted Art Attack” performances combined speed painting with rock music. The upside-down method became his signature, and others copied it.
As I have learned about speed painting I have found that it is a great analogy for the times we are living through at the moment. It’s all about the trade-off between entertainment and fine art. Upside-down speed painting prioritizes spectacle over artistic depth. The reveal is more important than the quality of the painting itself. And the truth is that it works best for recognizable subjects (celebrities, religious figures) than abstract concepts. It is often criticized by fine artists as gimmicky since the technique works best for portraits with strong contrast and is harder to use for complex scenes or subtle work. Also, the “surprise” only works once per audience. The upside-down technique is essentially a form of theatrical misdirection. It transforms the predictable act of watching someone paint into an event with a surprise ending, making it much more suitable for stage performances, viral videos, and entertainment contexts rather than traditional art exhibition. We live in a social media moment where our attention spans are being assumed to be getting shorter and shorter. We seem to care less about complexity and content than about Wow Factor. We are living in a geopolitical performative speed painting exhibition and the center ring artist is Donald Trump.
Think about it. None of us can make sense of what is going on and why it is happening. The world as we knew it has been turned upside down on us all and meanwhile this crazed performative artist is paining some inane image that is only understood by him. He has become famous (or at least infamous) in the eyes of the world, so everyone anxiously anticipates what great work of art he will produce and what its significance to the world will be. He does it all quickly and without much thought, driven mostly by his egotistical instinct to be the center of attention and to prove his vast value to the world. He doesn’t care who gets splattered by his paint and he is mostly unbounded in terms of subject matter. He thinks that what he is creating is the definitive artwork for the ages and that everyone in the world should be appreciative of his great artistry. And of course, what he is really creating is a stupid and trashy image of a world gone mad. I predict that his masterpiece will hang in the basement of world history and be questioned for centuries as to how such a great nation as the United States of America could have ever thought that he was an artist rather than a cheap sideshow act.