The Artist as Traveller

JACQUELINE BALASSA is a Post Graduate of the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, holding a Master of Fine Art. In addition, she studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and privately with Professor Christian Snyders, also in Florence. She has been painting for over 20 years and has exhibited extensively in Sydney and Canberra. She has also received a number of awards and numerous commendations during this time including winning the Glebe Art Prize in 2015. She has recently returned from a very successful exhibition at Art Central, Hong Kong.In this exhibition Jacqueline has been inspired by the tradition of the travelling artist. The works depict places of pristine wilderness and of great cultural heritage, in locations such as South America, Northern and Southern Africa, Europe and outback Australia.Jacqueline makes drawings on site and then later, in her studio, creates gouaches and oil paintings using her drawings, colour notes and memories to complete the works.In her world, the landscape is benign and welcoming, with only the slightest hint that this may not always be so. Jacqueline aims to depict the feeling of the light, the colour, the patterns and shapes that convey the true spirit of the places she is painting so that they are absolutely recognisable but at the same time, clearly a vision transformed by her invention and imagination.