Studio Visit: Jenny E. Balisle

The view from the back deck

We woke up early last month and grabbed a couple cups of coffee before we zipped across the Bay to Jenny E. Balisle’s studio to select work for her solo exhibition at the gallery in March.

Jenny and Scout in her studio.

We were glad that we were smart enough to grab coffee ahead of time, because when we arrived Jenny was ready to hit the ground running.

Large paintings propped up against the walls

Every inch of Balisle’s studio was covered with paintings. We even had to spread out into the other room for a bit. Not only did she have a large quantity of artworks for us to look at, but quite a few of the paintings were very large in scale.

Works on paper too.

Jenny also had a lovely selection of works on paper. Like her works on panel, these pieces were sumptuous with multiple layers of pigment. We sent a batch of these pieces to get framed, and cannot wait to get them up on the walls for her exhibition.

Works in progress

While we were exploring her studio we encountered other paintings in progress. Balisle’s paintings can be in process for over a year, with each layer and gesture building upon each other. It was interesting to see these paintings in such an early stage. It was as if we had an X-Ray view of the under paintings.

The artist talk is going to be fun!

If the photographs of the paintings in progress were not revealing enough then be sure to join us for Balilse’s artist talk next month. Jenny is sure to shine a new light on the artwork in the exhibition.

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