Item 1993_141 - Church Hall, Sutton Junction

John Ballantyne was born in Montréal in 1944. His earliest painting classes were with Alfred Pinsky (1921-1999) and Arthur Lismer (1885-1969). Following High School he studied civil engineering but left these studies in 1967 to return to painting. In 1968, he joined the New School of Art in Toronto. After one year he left to work in Nice, France and there he worked in "Centre artistique de rencontres internationales" , part of "L'École nationale d'art décoratif de Nice". In 1970, he was offered a studio in the village of Cagnes near Nice. His work quickly evolved from colour-field through photo-realism into a soft, quiet style of realism called by critics "hyper-surrealism". Following some early successes in England and France, John returned to Québec in late 1973. He set a studio outside of Sutton in order to develop his work in an isolated environment. From Sutton his works have found their way around the world and into collections across Canada, the United States, France, England and Denmark.