“My aim is to create images that are delicately balanced between observation and imagination, with a calm beauty and otherworldly quality. At the same time I also seek to express my visual and felt response to particular places. I begin with observational drawing on the spot and then, back in my studio I create drawings and paintings using these sketches, memory and imagination. I have developed a very personal visual language informed by my study of Early Italian Renaissance painting - Giotto, Veneziano, Fra Angelico – and, after a trip to China in 2018, Traditional Chinese Mountain - Water painting. I create equivalents to what I observe using colour, tone, pattern, space, shape, form and light. Although I use sophisticated technology to prepare my images for painting, I work just as these ancient artists did, in that I don’t use photographic or digital references. I believe this helps me achieve a unique and poetic interpretation of the landscape.”.

Jacqueline Balassa holds a BFA, MArt and an MFA all in painting from the College of Fine Arts, UNSW. Other studies comprise the National Art School, Sydney, the Academia di Belle Arti di Firenze, private study with Professor Christian Snyders, also in Florence and the Julian Ashton Art School, Sydney. Jacqueline has had numerous solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions. She has exhibited in Sydney, Hong Kong, Canberra, Melbourne, Orange Regional Gallery, Manning Regional Gallery and the Kedumba Gallery in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. She has been awarded the Gruner Prize for Landscape Painting and the Glebe Art Prize. She has been a finalist and received commendations in many significant art awards including the Salon des Refuses, the Mosman Art Prize, Fishers Ghost Art Prize, Georges River Art Prize, KAAF Art Award, Kedumba Drawing Award, Rick Amor Drawing Award, Adelaide Perry Drawing Award, Kings School Art Award, NSW Plein Air Art Prize and the Blake Prize. Her work is in the UNSW Alumni Collection and the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings. Jacqueline Balassa was elected to be a member of the Australian Watercolour Institute in 2022.

Jacqueline Balassa graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts [Painting Major] from COFA University of NSW in 1993, Master of Art [Painting] from COFA in 1995, and Master of Fine Art [Painting] from COFA University of NSW in 2000. She was awarded numerous art prizes throughout her career. Jacqueline Balassa was a finalist in the Korea-Australia Arts Foundation Art Prize in 2017 and a finalist in Hornsby Art Prize in 2017. She was a finalist and was awarded the Highly Commended Prize at Waverley Art Prize in 2015. She was awarded the Glebe Art Prize in 2015 and was also a finalist in Hunters Hill Art Prize in 2015, 1998, and was awarded Highly Commended in 1997. She was a finalist in Kogarah Art Prize in 2015. Jacqueline was also a Blake Prize finalist in 2013 and her work was illustrated in the Blake Prize Religious Diary in 2014. She was a finalist in Willoughby Art Prize in 2003 and was awarded Commended in 2000 and Highly Commended in 1997. She was selected for the Salon des Refusés in 2000. Jacqueline was also a finalist and was awarded Commended in Mosman Art Prize in 1997. She was the winner of the Gruner Prize for Landscape Painting at Art Gallery of NSW in 1995 and was awarded Second Place in 1996. Her work is in the collection of National Westminster Bank, College of Fine Arts at University of NSW, and in Crown Casino in Melbourne. Jacqueline Balassa had a very successful exhibition with Art Atrium at Art Central Hong Kong in 2017 and 2018.