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Barbara Balmer: Illusionist

Past viewing_room
2 April - 1 May 2021

  • Barbara Balmer (1929-2014) had a singular vision. Her pictures have a curious, if not surreal, edge. In her instantly recognisable style, she took the everyday and simplified it into shapes and patterns that she filled with subtle gradations of colour.
  • Balmer produced work over five decades. She taught and exhibited across Scotland, and many of her paintings feature in public... Balmer produced work over five decades. She taught and exhibited across Scotland, and many of her paintings feature in public... Balmer produced work over five decades. She taught and exhibited across Scotland, and many of her paintings feature in public... Balmer produced work over five decades. She taught and exhibited across Scotland, and many of her paintings feature in public...

    Balmer produced work over five decades. She taught and exhibited across Scotland, and many of her paintings feature in public collections, some of her best are in Glasgow Museums. Latterly, she has slipped from public notice, but she never quite achieved the reputation she deserved, even in life. Born in Birmingham, she moved to Scotland by way of a scholarship from Coventry School of Art that took her to Edinburgh College of Art (1949-1953). Her contemporaries are a roll call of familiar names of Scottish art: Elizabeth Blackadder, John Houston and Frances Walker to name a few. Balmer, however, eschewed the expressive brushwork and vibrant palette of the time and developed her own unique visual vocabulary.

     

    Her quiet, often large-scale oils, belie a poetry of mood. Their stillness gives way to a range of emotions: from nostalgia to unease. Night, a surreal vision of a garden by moonlight, balances an abstract sense of pattern with a delicate air of elegy. This dreamlike vision is even more heightened in Little May Tree, 1973, which captures a nocturnal enchantment that takes the viewer back to childhood. In Voyage of the Creeper, 1974, a mesmerising labyrinth of vines overtakes the roof of a house, evoking a similar feeling of disquiet.

     

    Windows are often used by Balmer as a compositional device of a frame within the frame, either to capture a view, or against which to set a still life. In White Window, 1966, her ability to layer patterns is particularly evident: the prolific umbrella plants overtake the astrigalled window, behind which confetti-like snow falls, highlighted against an old yew tree.

  • Barbara Balmer like many of her school is a steady and determined worker. But both in herself, and all she...

    Detail from San Miniato, Pisa, oil on panel

    Barbara Balmer like many of her school is a steady and determined worker. But both in herself, and all she does, glows that open spirit - and band-box vivacity.

    - Dr J. T. R. Richie, 1983

    Pictorialist, stylist, classicist, modernist. She is all of these things are more. Instantly identifiable at fifty yards. Gentle like a dove. Feminine, if the expression is excusable, but tough in discipline, draughtsmanship, and the sense of the fitness of things she brings together.

    - W. Gordon Smith, 1996

  • Balmer started to take annual working trips to Italy in the early 1970s. Early Renaissance artists, Piero della Francesca, Fra...

    Detail from Celebration for San Agostino (San Gimignano), oil on panel

    Balmer started to take annual working trips to Italy in the early 1970s. Early Renaissance artists, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico and Giotto, had inspired her during her studies. The soft pastel palette of Giorgio Morandi was also important to her. San Miniato, Pisa and Celebration for San Agostino (San Gimingnano) are both quintessential Italian views. These visions, if that is what they are, so carefully and delicately drawn together, are perhaps, as Professor Duncan MacMillan suggests, an evocation of an insubstantial dream. 

     

    In Triptych Bedscapes Imprint I, II and III, the bedclothes have become imaginary landscapes, and each panel mirrors the topography and mood of the other. In a recent review, Duncan MacMillan noted that ‘the paintings are also masterpieces of cubist composition as the folds evolve into intersecting planes defined by sharp lines.’

     

    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 though, 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 sorcerer and illusionist, yet the world she makes is real.’


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  • AVAILABLE ARTWORKS

    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Celebration for San Agostino (San Gimignano), 1980 signed; signed, titled and dated 1980 verso oil on panel 48 x 60 inches 121.9 x 152.4 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Celebration for San Agostino (San Gimignano), 1980
      signed; signed, titled and dated 1980 verso
      oil on panel
      48 x 60 inches
      121.9 x 152.4 cm
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW San Miniato, Pisa signed; signed and titled verso oil on panel 60 1/4 x 72 inches 153 x 182.9 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      San Miniato, Pisa
      signed; signed and titled verso
      oil on panel
      60 1/4 x 72 inches
      153 x 182.9 cm
    Close
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Triptych Bedscapes, Imprint I, 1992 signed, inscribed and dated 1992 verso watercolour 32 1/2 x 38 inches 82.5 x 96.5 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Triptych Bedscapes, Imprint I, 1992
      signed, inscribed and dated 1992 verso
      watercolour
      32 1/2 x 38 inches
      82.5 x 96.5 cm
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Triptych Bedscapes, Imprint II, 1992 signed, inscribed and dated 1992 verso watercolour 32 1/2 x 38 inches 82.5 x 96.5 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Triptych Bedscapes, Imprint II, 1992
      signed, inscribed and dated 1992 verso
      watercolour
      32 1/2 x 38 inches
      82.5 x 96.5 cm
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Triptych Bedscapes, Imprint III, 1992 signed, inscribed and dated 1992 verso watercolour 32 1/2 x 38 inches 82.5 x 96.5 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Triptych Bedscapes, Imprint III, 1992
      signed, inscribed and dated 1992 verso
      watercolour
      32 1/2 x 38 inches
      82.5 x 96.5 cm
    Close
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Voyage of the Creeper signed; signed and titled on frame verso oil on board 39 3/4 x 47 3/4 inches 101 x 121.3 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Voyage of the Creeper
      signed; signed and titled on frame verso
      oil on board
      39 3/4 x 47 3/4 inches
      101 x 121.3 cm
    Close
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW White Window signed; signed, titled, dated and inscribed with artist's address on frame verso oil on board 48 x 59 3/4 inches 121.9 x 151.8 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      White Window
      signed; signed, titled, dated and inscribed with artist's address on frame verso
      oil on board
      48 x 59 3/4 inches
      121.9 x 151.8 cm
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Little May Tree, 1973 signed; signed, titled, dated 1973 and inscribed with artist's address on frame verso oil on board 48 x 40 inches 121.9 x 101.6 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Little May Tree, 1973
      signed; signed, titled, dated 1973 and inscribed with artist's address on frame verso
      oil on board
      48 x 40 inches
      121.9 x 101.6 cm
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Night signed; signed and titled on frame verso oil on board 40 x 47 3/4 inches 101.6 x 121.3 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Night
      signed; signed and titled on frame verso
      oil on board
      40 x 47 3/4 inches
      101.6 x 121.3 cm
    Close
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Dancing Shoes signed pastel 10 1/4 x 15 1/2 inches
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Dancing Shoes
      signed
      pastel
      10 1/4 x 15 1/2 inches
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Pale Nude, 1980 signed and dated 1980; signed and titled verso oil on panel 18 1/4 x 22 inches
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Pale Nude, 1980
      signed and dated 1980; signed and titled verso
      oil on panel
      18 1/4 x 22 inches
    Close
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Jazz Parlour, Andalucia signed; signed and titled verso pencil and watercolour 27 1/2 x 33 inches 69.8 x 83.8 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Jazz Parlour, Andalucia
      signed; signed and titled verso
      pencil and watercolour
      27 1/2 x 33 inches
      69.8 x 83.8 cm
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Portrait of Rachel, 1973 signed pencil and watercolour 28 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches 71.8 x 56.5 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Portrait of Rachel, 1973
      signed
      pencil and watercolour
      28 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches
      71.8 x 56.5 cm
    • Barbara Balmer RSA RSW Trophy Cabinet, Andalucia signed; signed and titled verso pencil and watercolour 33 1/4 x 29 1/4 inches 84.5 x 74.3 cm
      Barbara Balmer RSA RSW
      Trophy Cabinet, Andalucia
      signed; signed and titled verso
      pencil and watercolour
      33 1/4 x 29 1/4 inches
      84.5 x 74.3 cm
    Close
  • All artworks are available to purchase. Please contact us using the button below for further details or images, or by emailing edinburgh@thefineartsociety.com

     
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