Art by Ann Balch
New Brunswick's Ann Balch has been working as a full time professional artist since 1996. She was elected to the prestigious Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC) in 2001 and also to the Society of Canadian Artists (SCA) in 2007.
Her confident use of colour and the emotional intensity in her images of black women have garnered wonderful recognition in print, as well as several national awards. In October 2005, the American "Watercolor Magic" magazine featured Ann’s work and technique, and she also contributed to an instructional book published by International Artist Publishers in 2004.
The beauty of painting is that I’m invited right in to examine another’s identity and secrets. Such an honour and a luxury to immerse myself in someone else’s life!
I want to perceive the subject so well that I could be the subject, looking out at the viewer - to know her so well that I become part of the painting. But at the same time, I want to be outside the subject, interacting, playing. I want to be the dance partner.
My desire to look intensely and intimately often results in focusing on parts of a face or a body. If the larger-than-life subject looks right at me and the viewer, an interesting dialogue begins, initiated by the person in the painting. And in the paintings where the subject looks away, the pose gives permission to explore, to examine. Either way, I find the engagement stimulating.
