Yesterday I had the great privilege to view the work of master painter Aldo Balding. I visit the Christopher Moller Art Gallery in Cape with a few artist friends. And what a wonderful experience that was! It is one thing to see artwork on the internet or in a magazine, but a completely different experience to see the actual work for real.
I have been a long time admirer of the work of Aldo Balding, and when I saw that his work will be exhibited in Cape Town, I just had to make a plan to view it. The owner of the gallery was so kind to open the gallery for us on a Sunday and treated us with a tour of the gallery.
First I was amazed by the size of some of the work. If you stand 3 or 4 meters away of the paintings you can see all the detail and it almost look photo-realistic. But once you move closer you can see that actually it is very loose brushwork. But Aldo Balding does it so masterfully, very much like John Singer Sergeant. I also noted his very clever use of complimentary colours. In a couple of paintings he combined blues with hints of oranges, or green with small specks of red. I try to also use complimentary colour in my own work. His value structures are also outstanding and he loves to paint the light. Most of his compositions are very interesting. He paints everyday scenes of figures in landscape or interior settings.
It is a very important part of an artist’s journey to study the work of other artists. We can only learn more. It was a very humbling experience for me to saw the work of Aldo Balding. Maybe one day I will be able to attend one of his workshops.
