WINDOWS TO THE SOUL

Gaining her Bachelor of Fine Art at Whanganui Quay School of the Arts (now Whanganui UCOL) between the years of 2002-2005, Bernadette Ballantyne was born into a family of creatives and maintains it’s in her blood. With a family of potters, musicians, singers, dancers, Bernadette always knew that art would have something to do with her career. “On leaving high school, I was actually applying and had been accepted into two different universities to do a teaching degree, and it was my cousin, who was at the time completing her Bachelor of Fine Art in Whanganui, who talked me into going for Fine Arts instead. That decision totally changed my life.”

Her biggest motivating factor to pursue a career as an artist is her children. “I had been teaching primary school for 13 years and it served me well. It allowed me to travel the world and have the freedom to move where I wanted to. But teaching is not an appealing profession for those with families anymore.

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