Barbara Balmer
Barbara Balmer’s pictures have a curious, even surreal, edge. In her instantly recognisable style, she took the everyday and simplified it into shapes and patterns filled with subtle gradations of colour. Balmer produced work over five decades. Her quiet, often large-scale oils, belie a poetry of mood. Their stillness gives way to a range of emotions: from nostalgia to unease. Balmer’s technical virtuosity is clear to see, and so too that her technique and style sets her apart from her contemporaries.
The artist’s poetic sensibilities are perhaps best summarised by the art critic W. Gordon Smith: ‘I am reminded of Saladin’s scimitar scything silk. Landscape and interiors veiled in pink and lilac mist. Skies showering confetti instead of snow. Breezes are zephyrs. Beds invite the rapture of sleep. Intimate portraits beguile, she is sorcerer and illusionist, yet the world she makes is real.’
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Barbara Balmer RSA RSWAsciano, Springsigned; signed and titled on panel versooil on panel42 x 36 inches
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Barbara Balmer RSA RSWCelebration for San Agostino (San Gimignano), 1980signed; signed, titled and dated 1980 versooil on panel48 x 60 inches
121.9 x 152.4 cm -
Barbara Balmer RSA RSWGlowing Landscape - Volterra, c.1985signed; signed and titled on frame verso; inscribed with artist's address and 'Black lines on near field are straw burn scars' on panel versooil on panel46 1/2 x 58 1/2 inches
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Barbara Balmer RSA RSWInterior - Mensano, 1988signed; signed, titled and dated versooil on panel44 x 51 1/2 inches
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Barbara Balmer RSA RSWLittle May Tree, 1973signed; signed, titled, dated 1973 and inscribed with artist's address on frame versooil on board48 x 40 inches
121.9 x 101.6 cm -
Barbara Balmer RSA RSWMidsummer Posie, 2002signed; signed, titled and dated 2002 versooil on board14 1/2 x 18 1/4 inches
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Barbara Balmer RSA RSWMoonlight, Hackness Parish Church, Yorkshire, c.1978signed; signed, titled and inscribed with artist's address on frame versooil on board33 x 42 1/4 inches
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Barbara Balmer RSA RSWNightsigned; signed and titled on frame versooil on board40 x 47 3/4 inches
101.6 x 121.3 cm -
Barbara Balmer RSA RSWSelf Portrait with Jewel, 1981signed, titled and dated 1981 on backboardwatercolour and pencil on paper34 1/2 x 20 1/4 inches
87.6 x 51.4 cm -
Barbara Balmer RSA RSWSummer Flowerssigned; signed and titled on frame versopencil and watercolour10 x 12 1/2 inches
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Barbara Balmer RSA RSWTable Top Still Lifesigned; artist's label on frame versooil on board30 x 36 inches
76.2 x 91.4 cm -
Barbara Balmer RSA RSWVoyage of the Creepersigned; signed and titled on frame versooil on board39 3/4 x 47 3/4 inches
101 x 121.3 cm -
Barbara Balmer RSA RSWWhite Windowsigned; signed, titled, dated and inscribed with artist's address on frame versooil on board48 x 59 3/4 inches
121.9 x 151.8 cm