Biography Landscapes Home and Abroad Marine Civil Engineering Abstracts Biography Patricia Ballard was born in Worcestershire, first daughter of an engineering design draughtsman, and moved to North Wales at the age of ten where the sea and the mountains made a huge and lasting impression. She was educated at Caernarfon Grammar School and began her painting career in 1969, producing mainly abstracts, always through the medium of oil and notably geometric in style. Through the seventies and eighties she produced a great number of Welsh and Italian landscapes illustrating in particular Venetian architecture. Several exhibitions resulted in many of these paintings being purchased for private collections in the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia and the United States of America. In 1987 she visited the Penmaenbach Tunnel while under construction and her career took on a new perspective - allowing her to combine the earlier style of work using technical drawing with landscape. Her first commission in the world of civil engineering was to paint the East Portal at Penmaenbach near completion. This was followed by a series of paintings showing the tunnels progress. She then went on to produce oils and watercolours of the Conway Crossing at various stages up to completion for the consulting engineers Travers Morgan and Partners, the final oil being presented by Travers Morgan to the Institution of Civil Engineers in London. Following this she recorded the construction of high level bridges at Newbridge and Chirk, bridges in Scotland, England and the 6.6kms West Bridge in Denmark which forms part of the European Storebaelt Group Project. Civil engineering work, particularly tunnels and bridges have now become of great interest to the artist, combining this with the ability to reproduce on canvas the design, construction and atmosphere of these, sometimes vast projects, has resulted in works seldom seen in the art world. Although she has travelled and worked abroad, through more than three decades her enjoyment of portraying the beauty and splendour that surrounds her has never waned, her deep attachment to the landscape of Wales remains as true today as in her childhood and the earliest days of her painting career. Exhibitions include: Caernarfon Library Gallery, Wales; Hammersmith London International Tunnelling, England; Udstilling Korsbrodregarden-Nyborg, Denmark; European Storebaelt Group, Denmark; Tonhalle-Dusseldorf, Germany; World Trade Centre Basle, Switzerland. Past Clients Include: Balfour Beatty, Edmund Nuttal Ltd, British Drilling Association Ltd, Alfred McAlpine Construction Ltd, Christiani and Nielsen (Wales), Travers Morgan and Partners (Consulting Engineers for the Welsh Office), RTZ/KACC Consortium, Per Aarsleff DK. Landscapes Home and Abroad  I have always enjoyed painting and drawing landscapes, even in school days I would prefer mountainous scenes to still life, and where better to be than close to Snowdonia with all its splendour and awe inspiring views. Where I live 900 feet above sea level we are close to a view point that inspired the renowned Welsh authoress Kate Roberts to write about village life and the Lôn Wen (white road) it is easy to understand how she must have felt about living in such a beautiful place where one can look across open moorland covered in purple heather in Summer to the summit of Snowdon with Moel Smytho to the left and Mynydd Mawr or Elephant Mountain to the right. Turning westward one can see the Isle of Anglesey lay out like a carpet and on a clear day it is sometimes possible to see the mountains of Southern Ireland.. In school holidays my brother and I would often play in the shallow valley between Moel Tryfan and the 'Elephant' close to the old quarry where men from the surrounding villages would be sat splitting slates, often we would draw on them with a fine slither picked up at random. Nowadays my materials are a little different, I prefer to work in oils on either stretched canvas or canvas panels – much tougher when working in windy conditions. I also prefer a palette knife and work quickly to cover the canvas, but use the finest watercolour brushes with a slightly diluted oil to place the fine detail. I work either from my studio or weather permitting out on location, lucky in the fact that within a few hundred yards there is a small stone bridge known as Bont-yr-Afon where on a summers day it is possible to sit and paint with little interruption, all you will hear is the call of birds or the occasional bleating of meandering sheep.  Often Patricia takes photos to catch the ever changing play of colours and light to sustain her in the studio when weather sends her inside. My love of travel has given me a myriad of visions for future works, from Europe across to the Middle East where ancient cities full of colour beg to be painted. The shores of the Sea of Galilee and the landscape beside the Dead Sea leave evocative memories of warm sienna contrasting with vibrant blues and greens, making it possible to record these scenes with the simplest of palettes. Occasionally it has been possible to combine both my landscape painting with the more precise works in the field of construction. Within a mile or two of the Storebaelt site in Denmark there were beautiful lagoons where the fresh water and lakes intermingled with the sea, ideal for relaxing with watercolours. Prolonged trips across Europe en route to Italy and Slovenia gave me a chance to sketch and photograph the Alps, the plains of Northern Italy and eventually the beautiful city of Venice, a continuous source of inspiration. Finally I recall the unique landscape s of New Zealand where the spectacular Southern Alps gave such powerful impressions I have felt compelled ever since to place them on canvas for others to look at and enjoy.  Marine Marine paintings have formed a small but very important part of Patricias painting career, indeed her earliest commissions were of Schooners on the high seas. One story she recalls was of great importance to the commissioner:  'A Schooner called the Unicorn that sank off the Kentish coast in 1912 is to sail again - but, this time on canvas. Captain Turner a retired sea captain from Caernarfon has commissioned a local artist to paint the vessel which was in his family for three generations. The Unicorn was built in Caernarfon owned by a Caernarfonshire family and lasted 72 years'. In 2001 Patrica was commissioned to paint in oils the decommissioned Research Vessel Prince Madog used by the School of Ocean Sciences, University of North Wales, Bangor, this painting hangs on board the new Prince Madog berthed at Menai Bridge. Patricia enjoys the challenge of accuracy, an example being the SVANEN. Every attention to detail must be applied as both Seafarers and Civil Engineers know their subjects well! She says that 'It is always quite difficult to part with these paintngs, but would like to concentrate more in the future on the recording of yachts and present day marine vessels' Civil Engineering Note by A.W. Arber F.I.C.E. 'Patricia Ballard is an established landscape painter who also specialises in adapting her landscape techniques to the portrayal of important civil engineering construction projects such as tunnels, large bridges and construction equipment at work. Your project can be recorded in oils or watercolours. Paintings make an ideal investment for display on the boardroom wall or in the foyer and for commemorative presentation. Although her work can be based on photographs, she prefers to visit the site to draw the initial studies and to take photographs for the record. Technical advice is available to ensure authenticity'. Paintings can be of work in progress or of the completed project to suit your requirements. Information on Civil Engineering may be found at the Institution of Civil Engineers web site. Abstracts Patricia does not expect the observer of these works to see an object or indeed a meaning but, hopes that the geometrical composition and use of colour is pleasing to the eye. Abstract painting has been around for a very long time and it never ceases to amaze Patricia how a piece of art produced a century or more ago can appear to have been painted today! She enjoys the relaxation that painting these works gives to her and hopes that they convey that feeling to the observer. While working in Denmark Patricia had the opportunity to visit the Louisiana museum and gallery of art and would highly recommend it to anyone who is attracted to this form of art to journey there. Her own favourite piece was in the Collection of Constructive Art by Naum Gabo and titled 'Column' 1923 which was 'very architectural and elegant'.