Ballis, Julie

When Julie was seven years old her grandfather, Walter Denham, wrote in her autograph book “Julie ‘Den’ wields a facile pen, she draws and draws without a pause”.  At high school she topped her art class and after leaving school studied art at East Sydney Technical College for three years.

Moving to Canberra and raising her family, Julie kept her interest in art alive by teaching at Hughes Primary School art clubs.  Her other mains interest were the theatre, where she worked in various capacities on shows for Canberra Philharmonic Society and other local theatre groups, and playing the piano, mainly to help her three daughters practice their singing and dancing routines for shows they were performing in..

Becoming involved in art again in 1990, Julie has since studied with various notable local and interstate artists, including the late Peg Minty, Dolan Lansley, Yve Close and former Archibald Prize winner, the late Joshua Smith.

During this period she was a finalist in the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award and also one of 30 Australian artists represented in 2005 in the Macquarie International/Portrait Artists Australia (PAA) Exhibition at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC.  She has also completed many commissions and has won various awards locally for landscape, still life and portrait paintings.  Her paintings are held in private collections in Australia, Canada, Fiji, Germany, Greece and the USA.

Julie’s portraits of former Member for Monaro Peter Webb MP and former Member for Monaro and NSW Government Minister Steve Whan MP were hung in PAA exhibitions in the NSW Parliament House in Sydney 2007 and 2009.  In 2008 her portrait of Dr Stephen Mendick was hung in PAA’s The Art of Healing exhibition at the Arthouse Hotel in Sydney and in 2009 her portrait of Queanbeyan personality the Reverend Mary Thorn was hung in PAA’s Unsung Heroes exhibition at Parliament House in Canberra.  Julie’s portrait of world squash icon Heather McKay AM OBE will soon hang in Queanbeyan’s new indoor sports centre Hall of Fame.

In 2009 Julie held a solo exhibition at The Q exhibition space in Queanbeyan and followed this up by exhibiting at The Q again in 2011, with her neighbor and fellow artist Kay Watts.

Julie has conducted portrait workshops for the Artist Society of Canberra and for six years she taught portraiture in weekly classes at the Queanbeyan Art Society.  She held the position of President of the Queanbeyan Art Society for four years to 2002 and during this period she was a member of the Queanbeyan City Council’s Cultural Advisory Committee.