Artdomain Art Marketing Blog

Nottingham born artist Debra Ball has been living on Shetland for the past 16 years.  She finds pleasure in the quiet surroundings of island life, and can engross herself in her work, without the distractions of a city environment.  Her work is a mixture of Shetland scenes painted in oils with palette knife texture, and more abstract paintings of imaginary, spiritual and dreamlike scenes.  She also has a stunning range of prints created from ink and pastel originals, of intricate landscapes with amazing detail and imagination.

Rocky Beach on the left is one of Debra’s latest oil paintings and depicts a calm and restful scene where you can almost hear the waves swishing onto the beach.  I love the way Debra manages to take a scene right down to it’s essentials, to give us in painted form, the very essence of what initially inspired her to paint that particular view.  This can also be seen in Shetland Snowscape and in Spiggie Beach where the wide sand bank draws your eye into the painting inviting you to step across the spotless Shetland sand.
 

Debra’s more abstract oil paintings are equally stunning.  These two paintings ‘Red Hot’ and ‘Hot Mustard’ work so well together, creating a fiery warmth to any interior space.  The colours resonate together and you can again see Debra’s skill at stripping away the non-essential to leave a strong visual statement.
 

The Palm Trees print on the left shows a more intricate style for Debra, however her balance of the black ink detailed landscape foreground, and the warm washed effect coloured background, creates a strong simple composition typical of Debra’s work.  These art works are particularly timeless as they could fit in any interior from an upmarket Edwardian parlour to a modern eclectic living space.  Artdomain created a great video of these prints which is worth a look on Debra’s web pages.

There is a thriving art community in Shetland and Debra is progressively becoming more involved.  She is hoping to join the Shetland art collective ‘Veer North‘ and sees this as a chance to talk and exhibit with other artists living in the same environment.

Debra’s work has been on exhibit at the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick and received an excellent review in the Shetland Times (when the new window opens just click on the image to zoom in).   A collection of her paintings can now be viewed at Healthcraft Gallery, 12 Commercial Road, Lerwick, Shetland.

Debra has also been involved in research into Crohn’s Disease and MS - click Here to read the article (when the new window opens just click on the image to zoom in).   Her work has recently been recognised by a Cambridge research and pharmaceutical company who asked to display Debra’s art work in their offices.

To view more of Debra’s work go to :

www.Artdomain.co.uk/debraball