Lisa Ballard

I am drawn to the temporal in the landscape, experiences such as the constantly changing light, the seasons, waiting for a grey sky to clear or the fleeting light of dawn and twilight. I try to capture how it is to be in that moment and place.

 

I am obsessed with colour and light, in particular the juxtaposition of colours, how colours affect and influence one another. I use the landscape around me to explore this, looking to colourful tree blossom, twilight skies, and dark storms with light breaking through. I look through the landscape, simplifying the image, exploring the negative space, searching for what I can use in my painting. I often lean towards abstraction, but try to hold on to the figurative elements.

 

The practice and the process of actually making the painting is important to me.  I love to use painterly brush marks. I put down a colour and respond to it, layer by layer. Incorporating washes, flat spray paint and scratches to allow the painting to evolve and always struggling to find balance in the finished work.