Natalia Balo Fine Art | Education
Natalia Balo Fine Art
Phone: +61 406 383 823
Reviews
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25.01.2022 Beautiful sculpture in progress! Great work, Kaw!
25.01.2022 My art student Tian,12, working hard on his Three-headed Dragon. All his own original design. A3 size, great graphic execution. We worked on hierarchy of form through shading. Well done Tian!
25.01.2022 Lovely wren study by my student Sue Daffy, from the last Bird Sketching workshop at Osprey House. Impressive work, Sue!
25.01.2022 To all my dear Friends and Students thank you all for a wonderful year of friendship, art and fun! Merry Christmas! Wish you a fabulous 2020! Blessings, Natalia
24.01.2022 It's my Birthday today! In lockdown...Thank you everyone for beautiful birthday wishes! I attach a picture of me in my studio taken today - me and Mr Pelican wh...o is almost finished... The key word is - ALMOST I probably will need another month of quarantine to be satisfied with my painting... See more
23.01.2022 Well, time flies and it is hard to believe we are in 2020 already! Just wanted to let you know that it is last 3 days left for the RAS end-of-year exhibition Kaleidoscope at Redcliffe Fire Station gallery. I exhibited one of my monochrome nude studies (below). Last year another one of the series "Passion" have won Best Picture award and got purchased by our local celebrity Richard Lancaster. The show is on till Sunday 12 January.
21.01.2022 Dragon project - Artwork by Jonathan, 8. The tail would not fit so we had to glue it on :)
21.01.2022 Portrait of Dr. Ang - in stages.
21.01.2022 Life goes on even in these difficult times. I have received the first 2020 issue of of ALAUDA - the magazine of "Société d'études ornithologiques de France" (Ornithology Society of France), with review of my book Bird Anatomy for Artists (Anatomie d'oiseau pour l'artiste). Thank you Evelyne Bremond Hoslet ! (the President of the Société d'études ornithologiques de France). The book sales are actually up, despite the delays with International delivery.
21.01.2022 To my dear students and friends Just a reminder about this month workshop at Ospreys, next Saturday October 19. I hope you have finished last month study of Cormorant, with fabulous totipalmate feet! I would love to see your sketches in class. Please check your calendar and let me know that you are participating, to help me with planning the workshop. We will be drawing one of the largest flying birds this time. Please bring your usual art materials, and your enthusiasm. We always have plenty of art materials to share in case you do not have any. Looking forward to see you next Saturday October 19, at the usual time 10:30 at Osprey House. Yours always, Natalia
20.01.2022 Totally agree - children need to study Art not necessarily to become great artists, but to become good people.
19.01.2022 Remembering last Saturday November 16 workshop at Osprey House. It has been a great year of Art and friendship - thank you everybody participating in our Bird Sketching workshops. Photos taken by Pip Grant-Taylor, the resident photographer at the Osprey House, are absolutely great!
18.01.2022 I want to pass on the message from our legendary Richard Lancaster, about the premiere of his new movie `The Third Commandant` at the Redcliffe Entertainment centre. It is the last in the Queensland History Mystery series and follows the previous two, `Mutiny on the Gayundah` and `The Great Shove Off`. I will be there - hope to see you too at this fabulous event! Last premiere was a real treat. Where: The World Premiere will be shown at the Redcliffe Entertainment Centre. Do...wns St. Redcliffe. When: At 7.00pm on Monday December 16. Note: This is a red carpet affair with cast and crew to be presented. Tickets: $8.00 from the Box Office or by booking on Please quote ticket booking number - 3283 0407 This is the last movie to be shown at the Redcliffe Entertainment Centre, as from 2020 only live shows will be featured there. More details from Richard' media release : Hi Everyone, I would really appreciate it, if you could circulate the attached to your friends, so that we can celebrate our home grown movie with a bumper crowd. I should also mention that this will be the last movie ever to be shown at the Entertainment Centre. Thanks for your help, Cheers Richard The Third Commandant- media release. MEDIA RELEASE. To create a humorous mockumentary from a period marked down in history as Brisbanes most horrific in the citys 220 year history, takes some doing. But thats exactly what the producers of `The Third Commandant` have done. The mockumentary tracks the life and times of the infamous Captain Patrick Logan, who from his arrival in Brisbane in 1826 to his mysterious death in the back blocks of Ipswich in 1830, created a harsh penal colony, where wretched convicts, both male and female, died in their hundreds from overwork, poor living conditions and sheer barbaric cruelty. But hang on, this is a mockumentary not a dramatic documentary. So with levity and tongue in cheek humour created by larger than life characterisations and over the top madcap situations, the producers have woven a Monty Pythonesque scenario, historically unheard of before now! `The Third Commandant` is the last in the Queensland History Mystery series and follows the previous two, `Mutiny on the Gayundah` and `The Great Shove Off`. This hour long movie was shot entirely in the Moreton Bay region with a miniscule budget. The cast and crew are entirely amateur, many having never performed in a movie. Producer/Director Richard Lancaster developed and scripted the movie and was joined by the experienced Director of Cinematography, Brian Lee Watson, who largely filmed and edited the movie as well.
18.01.2022 I love miniature carvings of Matt Heslop, a hobbyist woodcarver from UK. He recently purchased my book and sent me these photos of his tiny birds carved from Y-Shaped twigs & branches. So cute and stylish, lots of character! He also says: "I currently have a dream/ambition to learn one day to carve anatomically accurate miniature Ravens. Im hoping your book will help me towards that goal - How the feathers stack, etc. Ive noticed they have rather large tertials, and so on. I share my work mostly on my Instagram account as Hazelvalleybirds, though I have recently also created a Facebook page too. A google search of that name does bring up images also. Best regards, Matt Heslop"
18.01.2022 Interesting facts and pictures about egrets and herons...
17.01.2022 Today, it was a lovely surprise to receive a new beautiful book Ma-Chine-Able by Dr Trevor Weekes- a former supervisor and a good fried. I feel so lucky - my Birthday is on Thursday (on 7th) and it feels like the best present ever! Thank you Trevor, I love the book. Wonderful drawings and evocative content. I am a big fan of Trevor's art, and admire his wit as well as drawing skills. Now I have quite a collection of his books - 3 books! The very first one - 'Teach Your Chicken to Fly'- is my favourite, I had to trace it in England to buy a copy.
17.01.2022 Rainy day in Brisbane, but our Bird Sketching workshop at Osprey House has been as happy event as ever! It was so nice seeing everybody, and to share some stories - lots happened over the last month. We also have had new people attending which is wonderful - dear Leah and Lindsey, welcome to the club! Hope you have enjoyed the workshop and we will see you in future. We have been drawing our fabulous fisherman - Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus). Great subject, spectacular contrasting plumage. As always, we run out of time and could not quite finish the artworks, so plenty to work on at home. Below are some photos from the workshop, and our reference photo. Looking forward to see everyone next time, your tutor, Natalia
17.01.2022 Last Saturday November 16 we had last (for this year!) Bird Sketching workshop at Osprey House Environmental centre. It was great to see everyone, I am very happy with the artworks we started, and we had a bit of early Christmas party during the break. The feature bird this time was Splendid Fairy wren (Malurus-splendens), male and female, my absolutely favourite bird (and a symbol for my BFineArt studio). We learned about sexual dimorphism and the grip of perching foot, among other things. The references were kindly supplied by a famous Australian photographer Mark Eatwell. Thank you Mark! I attach a few photos I took at the workshop, more will follow as we had a privilege of our pictures taken by Osprey resident photographer Pip Grant-Taylor!
16.01.2022 I just found out about my book Bird Anatomy for Artists being mentioned on You Tube by Aaron Blaise, an ex Disney animator, in one of his tutorials that may be interesting to some of you. https://youtu.be/c9z_K4evRZY If the link doesn’t work the channel name is The Art of Aaron Blaise, who recommend my book in the video entitled Live Stream - Pen and Ink Drawing, in which he draws a Harpy eagle. He is very impressed with my book, which makes me very happy. Thank you Aaron, keep on great work.
16.01.2022 Beautiful sight... Our Ospreys at the empty nest. Still hard to believe that lovely young chicks are lost... Nature is so cruel, so often.
16.01.2022 Lovely Sunday scenes at our Suttons beach - feels like summer already!
16.01.2022 I greatly admire beautiful bird sculptures of Kaw Eat , now a good friend from Philippines, and I am honored he purchased my book on Bird Anatomy.
16.01.2022 Lovely to see our breeding pair of Ospreys with babies this year (at Osprey House, Griffin)
15.01.2022 Unbelievably beautiful photo!
14.01.2022 To my dear Friends - Have Safe and Happy Easter! Hope your families are safe and in high spirit, and that these difficult times will only bring you close. We cannot come near other people but nothing can stop us to do what we love Art in particular. The future of our Bird Sketching workshops at Osprey House is still uncertain, in current situation. Coming together to learn about Art and Birds, enjoying each other company, sharing stories and ideas and working on our artwork...s together all seems now like a sweet dream a luxury we did not really appreciate at the time. The good news is that there is hope the crisis will normalize soon. I got comforting news from my publisher in China (Shenzhen) that the lock down is over in China and businesses and schools return to normal life. He says about his family: We are all great and no one got affected, and everything recovered in China. Chinese government took very strict and efficient preventing actions. We stayed home for more than 1 month you know from Jan 20 to the end of Feb. To us it is OK because the supermarkets are always open and we can buy everything we need. Everyday we just stay home and have fun with my family. And we go out and shopping once a week. Seriously talking, it worked very well, I mean stay home and reduce meeting with other people can stop the virus. So I am happy to hear that you made your mother stay home. It is absolutely correct. And please yourself also reduce going out times. China took very strict actions and virus lasted 2 months, so I think AU may need more time to finish it. Now no virus here and so no danger at all. :) I hope virus will finish soon all over the world and all people can live safe and happy. I am working on a series of Pelican drawings and paintings at the moment, so Pelican is my favourite bird. I attach a sketch I turned into Easter card! God Bless, and Happy Easter! This too, shall pass. Natalia Balo
13.01.2022 Our Art class pictures from Art exhibition at Mueller Art festival - it was quite a celebration! Everyone admired our little display. Fabulous artworks by my little students. New Art Cube gallery looks great!
13.01.2022 Life goes on at our beloved Osprey House. At least our Ospreys are not affected by the Corvid 19. Thank you for the update and great pictures, Pip!
09.01.2022 Another scary dragon by my little student Ha Min, 8 yo.
09.01.2022 Great video - a happy family of fairy wrend, my favourite birds - by Mark Eatwell.
08.01.2022 Another take on the fairy dragon character - a baby Princess dragon and it's castle, from sisters Annabelle (8) and Aileen. Work in progress!
05.01.2022 I love Kookaburra for their snake-catching talent. I especially appreciated our large Kookaburra family when I lived across the nature reserve in Newcastle, with three pets who loved backyard. Having Kooks on the watch made me feel safer, despite their gargantuan laughter right next to my window.
05.01.2022 Another splendid footage from our hero photographer Mark Eatwell!
05.01.2022 The only artistic birds who create structures not for nesting but for courtship. Beautifully decorated too!
04.01.2022 With great sorrow I want to pass on sad news dear Dr Ang, one of my portrait customers, passed away recently. The family invited me to the funeral in Newcastle, but as I live in Brisbane now I could not attend. Dr. Ang was a retired head of radiology department at John Hunter hospital, Newcastle, art love and philanthropist, and a man of great Christian faith. During the sittings we got to talk about many things important to him, his profession, migration to Australia with... hi young family, his wife Mok Sek the love of his life, and his children who he was most proud about. I painted his parade portrait the way he wanted it sitting in his studio, with his favourite books and paintings. He was very enthusiastic and wanted to be involved at every stage of the portrait progress. He loved the portrait I painted, and the life sketch, and his family treasures it now. As he wanted, my portrait of Dr. Ang was placed on the cover of his funeral proceedings program. Life is so short, I still can not believe dear Dr. Ang is gone. Will always remember him. See more
04.01.2022 Photographing Osprey at its nest next to the Hays' inlet, at the end of the Silkock St, Clontarf (behind the Golf course). This nest was built by family of Ospreys (not artificially installed to attract the birds to nest). It is occupied, will be there new chicks/ we need a success story!
03.01.2022 16 November - Bird Sketching Workshop at Osprey's To my dear students and friends Just a reminder about this month workshop at Ospreys, next Saturday November 16. It is last workshop for 2019 would you believe it the year almost over? We had 9 workshops, and have done a lot of interesting bird studies this year, I was great getting to know everyone too. Please check your calendar and let me know that you are participating, to help me with preparing for the workshop. This... time I plan a Christmas theme, and a bit of an early Christmas tea-party - would be lovely to see everyone. And of course the best present for me would be your happiness and knowing you have learned something new about our fabulous native birds. If you please can write a few words about the workshops, the facilities, the tutor, the content, and the way to improve the workshops for future (apart from my accent!) - your feedback will help to secure our workshops with the Council for 2020. Also, the second revised edition of my book Bird Anatomy for Artist is finally arrived, I know that some of my students want to purchase one, so I will bring few books in class. As the books are freshly released, they will be available at a special price - $35, with the authors signature. Looking forward to see you next Saturday November 16, at the usual time 10:30 at Osprey House. See more
02.01.2022 Wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very happy New 2021 Year! May new year be kinder to all all. I attach my new "Three Jolly Redcliffe Pelicans" card for you. (Yes pelicans again - I am working on a Pelican Anatomy project and at the moment this is my favourite bird:)
02.01.2022 We finally finished our Halowin gragon project - here is a watercolour on Night Dragon by Annabelle, 12yo.
01.01.2022 Looking pretty Splendid - lovely sketch of Splendid Fairy wren by my student Greg Longman, from our last bird sketching workshop. Well done, Greg!
01.01.2022 Time to go on a museum excursion!
01.01.2022 Three-headed Dragon by my older student Tian, 12yo. Well done Tian!
