Fay makes drawings about her childhood: personal belongings which evoke memories and thoughts as well as detailed studies of her family home which recall particular moments. In addition, she has made work about the search for her mother who died in Spain when Fay was seven.
Fay makes drawings about her childhood: personal belongings which evoke memories and thoughts as well as detailed studies of her family home which recall particular moments. In addition, she has made work about the search for her mother who died in Spain when Fay was seven.
These drawings were shown in ‘Breathe’, an exhibition at Freud Museum London 2018 and ‘Travelling Companions’ at the University of Cambridge 2020.
They also featured in ‘House Clearance’ at Eleven Spitalfields Gallery and at & Model Gallery Leeds as well as in Fay Ballard: In Focus at Charing Cross Hospital.
Her work is informed by the writings of Freud, Melanie Klein, Hanna Segal and Donald Winnicott.
Fay was Visiting Artist at Hammersmith Hospital in 2017 and 2018 making art with patients at their bedsides.
Fay lectures at several London art schools and sits on the Imperial Health Charity (NHS) Arts Committee, delivering arts programmes to patients at five London hospitals.
After working for the RA and Tate, Fay completed MA Fine Arts at Central Saint Martin’s in 2004.
Her work is held in private and public collections including New Hall Cambridge, Imperial Health, Royal College of Physicians, Royal Watercolour Society, HM The Queen, HRH The Prince of Wales and The Prince’s Foundation.
Education
2004 MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design
2003 Foundation Studies Art & Design Diploma, City Literary Institute
1979 BA History of Art, University of Sussex
Exhibitions (selection)
2020 Travelling Companions University of Cambridge
2018 Transylvania Florilegium, National Gallery, Bucharest
Romania & Romanian Cultural Institute London
2018 Breathe Freud Museum London
2018 Pharmacopoeia Royal College of Physicians London
2017 Art in Focus: Fay Ballard Charing Cross Hospital London
2017 Family Reunion Pi Artworks London
2017 Summer Exhibition Royal Academy of Arts
2015 Grand Magasin Deux French Riviera Gallery London
2015 Alligators in the Hall Centre for Recent Drawing London
2015 House Clearance & Model Gallery Leeds
2014 House Clearance Eleven Spitalfields Gallery London
2011 Summer Exhibition Royal Academy of Arts
2010 Fay Ballard Summerleaze Gallery Salisbury
Dr Sherwood Collection Teylers Museum, Netherlands
Dr Sherwood Collection Marucube Gallery Tokyo
Watercolour Biennale Museo della Carta e della Filigrana Italy
2009 The Highgrove Florilegium Garden Museum London
Dr Sherwood Collection Nijo-jo Castle Kyoto
2008 The Highgrove Florilegium Huntington Art Collections USA
The Highgrove Florilegium School Interior Design New York
2006 Dr Sherwood Collection S.Togo Memorial Sompo Museum of Art Tokyo
Special Projects
2017-18 Visiting Artist Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial Health (NHS)
2017 Field Trip: The Princes Foundation to Transylvania drawing rare plants for Transylvania Florilegium
2008 Field Trip: The Princes Foundation to draw plants at Highgrove for Highgrove Florilegium
Teaching & talks Royal College of Art MA Cross Currents, Camberwell Art School MA Printmaking, Wimbledon Art School MA Painting Research ‘Punk Suburbia’, British Library, Freud Museum, Leeds & Anglia Ruskin Universities, The Drawing Room London
Award: Drawing Center New York Recognition Award 2015
Press articles on ‘House Clearance’ including The Guardian’s selected exhibition of the week – please see www.fayballard.com
Collections Imperial Health NHS Charity Trust, New Hall Art Collection Cambridge; HM The Queen; HRH The Prince of Wales; The Prince’s Foundation; Winsor & Newton; Royal Watercolour Society; Royal College of Physicians
Recent Publications Breathe (Freud Museum); Madam and Eve by Liz Rideal and Kathleen Soriano, Laurence King Publishing; Pharmacopoeia Royal College of Physicians; Transylvania Florilegium (2 volumes, Addison Pub.); Highgrove Florilegium (2 volumes, Addison Pub.); & Model Gallery: five years (Leeds Beckett University); House Clearance Eleven Spitalfields Gallery London; Botanical Paintings from Shirley Sherwood Collection (Ashmolean Museum Oxford)
Committee membership
1998-02 Camden Arts Centre Trustee
2004 - Victoria Miro Educational Trust
2018 - Imperial Health Charity Arts Committee (NHS)
