Ella Balkwill
Paris, Ontario
The passion to create has been my motivation throughout my childhood and education, interior decorating career and now as an artist. It lets me breathe.
MessageElla Balkwill
Mobile: 204.481.0310. Email: [email protected]
Ella Balkwill, originally from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, now resides near Paris, Ontario. She has studied at the Guelph School of Art, Alton Mills Arts Centre, Elora Centre for the Arts and the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, Co Mayo, Ireland.
Ella’s creative roots began as a teenager when she designed, and created, her own clothing. This evolved into drapery making and eventually became a successful interior decorating business. Now, reunited with her passion, Ella concentrates on teaching and creating art which speaks to her soul. She skirted the draw of acrylic painting in search of a more natural, intuitive outlet to her unquenchable curiosity. Her outlet was found in cold wax and oil medium - with much of her inspiration coming from colours in nature. She is also an avid gardener which expands her creativity into new realms of abstract colour combinations. Many of her pieces resound with intense saturation of colour and light with ideas taken from her gardens.
She finds herself creating layers, overlapping and scraping, revealing interesting and beautiful combinations of glorious colour and artistic character. Because of the variety of texture and layers, and the technique of letting previous layers and textures show through the surface, paintings done in this medium are naturally rich in complexity. Ella creates marks, textures, and shapes, taking the complexity and editing it down until what remains is strictly the essential. The simplest of compositions sing with underlying intricacy and passion.
Ella’s body of Abstract Expressionism is created to effect peace and calm, to inspire and heal. Cold wax and oil medium is enticingly organic, tactile, and invites our touch.
Statement
Ella Balkwill Mobile: 204.481.0310 Email: [email protected]
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
-Edgar Degas
When I decided to get back to painting, I went looking for a medium I had never attempted. I quickly found Cold Wax and Oil and now paint full time and continually challenge myself with Abstract Expressionism. This is where my intuition comes alive and the surprise of what emerges through the creation of cold wax and oil layers, scraping back and reapplying until there can be sixteen or more layers of medium before it is completed. I also like to introduce charcoal, peat ash, ink and collage to the pieces sealing everything with a thin coat of cold wax. The simplest composition will reign with complexity due to the process of its creation. I believe this process mirrors life as well. We usually have to live through complex periods of change and emotion before we can begin to embrace our art of living.
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