Biography

Origins and influences... Contemporary landscape artist Brigitte Balbinot grew up Switzerland. She is a full time practicing artist who now works and lives in South Florida. Having both a Swiss and Italian heritage, her solid footprint in the old continent can be observed in her work. While predominantly nature inspired, her paintings are driven by a sense of place while alluding to the nostalgia of time passed and life's impermanence. Each year, the artist spends time in her native country of Switzerland as well as in a small medieval village situated in the northern part of Italy. Being immersed in the Italian culture and regional landscape has influenced her work over the years, and is particularly evident in her most recent body of work titled "Strutura". These works not only reflect her passion for the Northern Italian landscape but also her love of ancient medieval villages and antique structures. In fact, Balbinot spends a great deal of her time researching and visiting ancient castles and old manors. Her work can be seen as a mixture of modernism and traditionalism, carrying a certain "European" flair and sophistication. With each painting, she aims at creating an object that is either tied to a place or to a memory. More recently, Balbinot has been introducing framing on some of her works, carefully choosing styles that reflect her thinking and reflection on the passage of time, thereby creating a highly orchestrated symbioses of old and new. About the process... Balbinot works with different mediums such as oil, both cold and hot wax also known as encaustic, a medium dating back to the Greco Romans, which requires the use of a blow torch to fuse each layer application. Her process is complex and requires many months to reach completion. Techniques such as solvent reduction, the use of organic materials and aggregates such as dry pigments or marble dust that are mixed directly to the paint allow her to create rich and vibrant patinas of both textures and colors. The crafting of these intricate and complex surfaces emphasizes the physicality of the material. Balbinot is self-taught. Over the years she has been perfecting her skills via numerous workshops, classes and mentorships, which has resulted in an ongoing progression of her work. She has collaborated on residential and commercial commissions in Canada and in the United States and has collectors in both North America and Europe. Currently the artist shows her work in regional galleries and selected curated exhibits. For the past few years, Balbinot has been dividing her time between her main studio in Florida and a second studio located in Montréal Québec, while also spending time in Europe yearly.