Hamburg’s a creative – and healing –
haven for artist Toni-Ann Ballenden
Inspired by the shoreline of Hamburg, Toni-Ann has produced a bold new body of work.
Picture: Grace Coetzee
Perched on top of a Hamburg hill with fabulous views over the Indian Ocean is the Moroccan-style refuge of artist Toni-Ann Ballenden and her husband Finn. Pelargoniums burst forth in a vibrant palette of pinks and reds in the lush courtyard, leading into the living room-cum studio where a clutter of sea shells and canvases are being sculpted into gorgeous multi-media works by Toni-Ann as she prepares for an upcoming exhibition.
Moving to Hamburg permanently from Johannesburg in 2022 – the Ballendens have a two decade-long relationship with the village and built their house here in 2002 – has had a profound influence on Toni-Ann. Hamburg, she says, has lifted her art beyond her earlier “dark and angsty” phase, a period imprinted with the urban decay of Jozi that she witnessed from her inner-city studio window, to capturing the rhythmic tranquility and beauty of Hamburg’s seascape with some tantalizing new artistic experiments.
Toni-Ann is known for her abstract works which evolved from a process of deliberately destroying and then reconstructing her earlier drawings and paintings. She says her early work lacked confidence, which led her to destroy many of them by burning or cutting them up. This evolved into her signature creative practice of deconstructing/reconstructing her art, a unique Phoenix-like process that sometimes takes months.
Her latest work propels this technique to new heights by blending “deconstructed” marine patterns etched into her canvas with ink and paint, or by knotting raw, unadorned canvas into ropes, and then merging them with sinuous spines and spirals of sea shells collected from the Hamburg beach.
The result is a series of works that are both compelling and intriguing, a celebration of Nature worlds away from the brokenness of Johannesburg and also highlight her passion for pushing the technical boundaries of mixed media.
Toni-Ann was born in 1951 in Cape Town and grew up in a creative home where her mother, Audrey Beerman, was an established artist. In between bringing up a family, honing her artistic talents as well as teaching art, Toni-Ann studied fine art at Wits Technikon, graduating cum laude.
She has had several solo exhibitions over the years and participated in numerous group shows. Her work is in three major collections: the Anglo American Collection, the Sasol Collection, and the Johannesburg University Collection.
From the verandah of her house overlooking the ocean where breaching whales are a regular sight, where village goats, donkeys and cows browse lazily across her lawn, Toni-Ann reflects on the life-changing experience Hamburg has wrought. “It’s been cathartic. Being here has helped me heal from the trauma of a family tragedy and I’m feeling centred and at peace. I’ve also let go of the desire for success and am just enjoying the process of creating”.
She’s philosophical – and confident – about the creative changes triggered by her Hamburg sojurn. “An artist’s work is a diary of one’s life”, she says, “and now, finally, am I feeling truly happy about my art.”
You can find Toni-Ann on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/toniannballenden7707
– Bruce Cohen