Jessica Ballantyne
An introduction to me, my influences and my art

Bio
Born in South Africa, I was awarded my BA in Fine Arts from
the University of Pretoria in 2009. Here’s me with my friends
on graduation day.

At the end of 2009 I moved to the UK to become an artist.
A series of “getting by” jobs, however, distracted me from
my plan and put my artistic dreams on hold

Over the next two years I lived on a job site in an old,
leaking, spider-infested caravan in the beautiful
countryside and worked as a laboratory assistant. When
the time came to leave the countryside, I moved to London
to pursue my art. I found a studio in Woolwich where I
planned to spend a year of artistic freedom!
This lead to a really liberating time and in 2013 I joined a
collective and began showing my work in Vyner street.
Happy days!!

In 2014 I moved to an amazing new artist space in Thurrock,
at High House Production Park where I still am today.

Inspiration

Whilst at University I became inspired by the
difference between the way male and female artists
in the surrealist movement portrayed women
I saw similarities between photography, pornography
and media images of women, and the work of many
male artists. They all seemed to spring from the same
ideology of women as available objects of desire

Inspiring Male Photographers
Man Ray
Andre Kertzche
Hans Bellmer
Man Ray used light
to crop and pattern
the nude female
body
Andre Kertzche
used reflective
materials to distort
and disfigure the
body
Hans Bellmer used
dolls to disfigure,
fetishise and
sexualise parts of
the female body

Inspiring Male Painters
Dali
Matisse
Picasso
Dali’s smooth
technique and
his sexual,
psychoanalytic
themes
Picasso’s blue
phase and use of
colour to portray
emotion
Matisse’s ground
breaking use of
colour and
patterns

One of my aims is to comment on how we portray
women, as well as to show and comment on my
experience of my own femininity.
I wondered if there was a way to show the body as
something different, something more than just a
body, more than just an object.
How would I begin to show a body within which a
presence resides; the subject?

Inspiring Female photographers
Cindy Sherman
Anna Mendieta
Francesca Woodman
Cindy
Sherman used
her own body
to comment
on sexual
objectification
Francesca
Woodman used
her body to
create surreal and
psychological
portraits and
states
Anna Mendieta
used her body as
an “imprint” to
comment on her
origin and her
place as a woman
in her
environment

Inspiring Female Artists
Tracy Payne
Hanna Hoch
Leonora Carrington
Hanna Hoch’s use of
collage and texture
Tracy Payne’s
delicate
layering and
sexual themes
Leonora
Carrington’s
surreal
themes and
personal
expressions

My Work

I am inspired by the surrealists' use of
colour, distortion, repetition and allusion
when portraying the female body.
I aim to use similar techniques to create a
body that draws you in but challenges you
at the same time.

Surreal Surfboard
By Jessica Ballantyne
Oil paint on surfboard
170x48cm

Some of my work at the ‘Living arts
Show’2014. Body painting and art
go so well together! ;)
My surfboard and I at the Art Car Boot
Fair, Brick Lane, London 2014

I want to celebrate and portray a sexuality
that is neither explicit nor moderated
To achieve this I infuse my painted bodies
with individual psychology and
presence

By Jessica Ballantyne
Medium; Oil on canvas
Size; 90x90cm
Foot Fetish #1

Carrion
Wake Up
By Jessica Ballantyne
Medium;Oil on canvas
Size; 90x90cm

Each piece is a search for meaning in and
beyond the body.
I play with the perception and
representation of the female body
To challenge ideologies associated with the
female nude as a passive, submissive object
of desire.

By Jessica Ballantyne
Medium; Oil on canvas
Size; 85x100cm
Foot Fetish #2

Squished #1
By Jessica Ballantyne
Medium; Oil on canvas
Size; 40x40cm

My work is a celebration of sensuality,
sexuality and subjectivity.
It is an exploration into the psychology of
experience.

Eye-Balling
By Jessica Ballantyne
Medium; Oil and spray paint
on canvas
Size; Eight 40x40cm canvases

Pink
By Jessica Ballantyne
Medium; Oil on canvas
Size: Three canvases
measuring
80x40cm
80x60cm
80x80cm

I enjoyed putting that together, hope you
enjoyed looking at it!
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