Ballan Bolton
My responsibility as an artist, I believe, is to capture and comment on humanity. I like the idea of an artist, like a journalist or a historian, providing a record of a certain time, place and people.
Travel, different cultures and changing environments have been part of my life since childhood. I have experienced living in traditional, indigenous, remote and urban communities around the world. Similar to artists that have inspired me, like Brett Whitely and Toulouse-Latrec, I see my paintings as a way to create a record about the society in which I live.
I hope my paintings are viewed positively, but also reveal some of the hardships of life in a world that is changing quickly. I want to capture universal themes about humanity – family, food and people’s everyday lives. Things that most of us can relate to, whatever culture or country we live in.
In this body of work I explore the life and people of Vanuatu. I paint everyday scenes as I see them – people shopping, catching buses, fishing. Through my work I also explore Vanuatu’s beauty and character in a way that differs from the image of Vanuatu as purely a tourist destination with tropical beaches and palm trees. So different but still so ordinary.
Ballan Bolton
June 2008
Exhibitions
- 2009
- Small is the New Big
- Ballan Bolton
- 2008
- The Young Ones
Biography
- 1980
- Born Wollongong NSW. Currently lives in Vanuatu
- 2001–2004
- The Julian Ashton Art School, Diploma of Fine Arts
Solo Exhibitions
- 2009
- Robin Gibson Gallery
- 2008
- National Museum of Vanuatu
- 2005
- The Art Space
Group Exhibitions
- 2006
- Ivy Hill Gallery
- 2005
- The Art Space
- 2004
- S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Year in Art
- 2004
- Robin Gibson Gallery, Still Life
- 2004
- The Julian Ashton Art School
- 2003
- The Julian Ashton Art School
- 2002
- The Julian Ashton Art School
Awards
- 2008
- Finalist in the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Awards
- 2006
- Winner of Alice Bale Art Award
- 2005
- Finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship
- 2005
- Finalist in the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Awards
- 2005
- Finalist in the Canberra Art Prize
- 2004
- Finalist in the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Awards
- 2004
- Robert Le Gay Brereton Drawing Prize
- 2004
- Finalist in the Dymocks Art Prize
- 2004
- Winner of Local Subject in the Waverley Art Prize
- 2004
- Winner of Best Picture in the Snowy Mountains Art Award
- 2003
- Finalist in the Alice Bale Art Award
- 2001
- Awarded the Sir William Dobell Scholarship, the Julian Ashton Art School
- 2001
- Awarded the Phillip Muskett prize for landscape drawing and painting, the Julian Ashton Art School
Collections
- National Museum of Vanuatu and private collections Australia, USA
About the Artist
Clearly Ballan Bolton is a generous man. He lives in a spectacularly beautiful place, his paintings are the doors to his home and he leaves them wide open. Less charitable artists would have security guards keeping watch and admission would be by invitation only. Ballan’s paintings don’t challenge you to enter into their world; they invite you in. And if your experience is anything like mine, I should warn you, you might find it hard to leave.
Painters like Ballan Bolton know the sense of wonder one can derive from the simple but profound pleasure of seeing. By capturing these moments of beauty, these moments of truth, and realising them in his own unique way he enables the viewer to share his own exhilaration.
Ballan also has a genuine love of the medium itself. Paint is unruly, pigheaded stuff that often refuses to do what you want it to. The best painters grow to love it and learn to work with it – and you don’t have to look too hard at Ballan’s work to see he’s one of those painters who thoroughly enjoys the experience of working with the material itself. It’s one of the reasons we can derive so much pleasure from looking at his work. Even when it comes to the far less contemplative process of drawing a cartoon, I’m always mindful that if I don’t enjoy drawing the work, no one is going to enjoy looking at it when I’m finished.
Looking at Ballan’s work I can see that the contemplation and execution of these paintings have given him a great deal of pleasure. They’re paintings you can look into. When you do, Ballan will draw your attention to things you might otherwise not notice. Living as he does, immersed in the colour and splendour of Vanuatu, it’s the small, seemingly insignificant details of daily life which often command his attention. I’m reminded of Bonnard, another artist who welcomed you into his own world. It was a quiet, intimate world where, sometimes, you’d almost feel embarrassed at having turned up in his bathroom to find his wife laying in the tub.
So accept this invitation. Get in there, enjoy a glimpse of Ballan’s world through his eyes – and remember what it looked like when you come back.
Bill Leak, February 2009
