Barrie artist selected to compete in global art competition

Francesca Viscardi with her oil painting, In Between Conversations, which was selected for ART COMP, one of the biggest art competitions in the world. (Francesca Viscardi)

A Barrie artist is getting set to compete in one of the largest art competitions in the world.

Fresh off the heels of The Artist Project—a large-scale, Toronto art exhibition spanning four days and showing 250 different artists—Francesca Viscardi has been selected as one of 100 artists at London’s ART COMP.

Viscardi, an oil painter from Barrie, found out she was one of the ones chosen while she was setting up her booth for The Artist Project, where she sold six paintings.

She told CTV News she submitted her painting In Between Conversations, a 30- by 48-inch piece, her largest painting and most difficult yet, taking her two months to complete.

It’s also her favourite, she said.

“I like the contrast of how simplistic it was in terms of the moment,” Viscardi said. “It was just my family having dinner, but it was in such a beautiful place, like the ceiling and the arch in the bar and just kind of like how everything looked composition-wise.”

Viscardi said she gets inspiration from her own personal experience.

“It means a lot to me to paint things that are moments of my own,” she said. “There’s so many different focal points to it, yet it’s such a simplistic moment in my life and I really like that duality in my work.”

While this was the hardest piece she’s ever worked on, it was the moment Viscardi knew art was something she could really make a living out of.

“It was challenging, but it also gave me a lot of confidence as an artist. When I completed that piece, I was like ‘okay, I think I can actually do this and I can be an artist.’”

She added when she would be working on other paintings and hit what she calls “an awkward phase” in the painting process, she said she could just look at In Between Conversations and it would give her the confidence she needed to push through.

ART COMP is a competition that awards a total of $200,000 in prizes, with winners chosen by a panel of judges and public voting.

Her painting is on display as of May 29 and will stay up until Sept. 7 at 100 Kellogg Lane in London.

The exhibition is free to attend.

How she started painting

Viscardi, a self-taught artist, said she picked up oil painting when she, like many, found herself with a lot of time on her hands during the pandemic.

“I went to the art store and picked up oil pastels, crayons, markers, acrylic paint, charcoal and oil paint,” she said.

She said she tried all those different mediums, but it was oil paint that felt the most comfortable for her.

“It’s also a very challenging medium, but when I’m painting, the thing that’s the least complicated is oil paint,” Viscardi said.

She said she can get into a “flow state” and that it’s a medium she can really work with.

Other than searching up the basics for how to use the medium, she pretty much taught herself how to paint and admittedly, she said she doesn’t really follow the rules.

Art and social media

Not only is Viscardi a painter, but she uses her artist’s eye in photography and videography also, and combines those passions to create a unique online presence.

“I like how I can blend painting, photography and videography into something for people to enjoy and experience,” she said.

In a social media world of finished products and highlight reels, Viscardi documents her painting journeys on YouTube and TikTok, not leaving out much - even the bumps in the road.

Viscardi said she wants to be able to share behind-the-scenes looks at her craft and not just the finished product.

“It’s important to share the process of painting in terms of skill and technique and things like that, but I think that art’s a lot more complicated in a beautiful way,” Viscardi said.

In her videos, she not only shows her palette and technique, but also the struggles she went through when creating her work, making the art process feel a little more personal. She also shares her thoughts during the painting process, which showcases not only the transition of the painting, but herself transitioning along with it.

Viscardi, who has a humble disposition, said sharing the struggle makes art less intimidating.