Aldo Balding was born in Portsmouth and studied at the Southampton College Faculty of Design. After leaving with a diploma in illustration he worked for the next fifteen years or so as a freelance illustrator and portrait painter producing illustrations for Punch, the Sunday Times and an array of advertising agencies. Portrait commissions included the Miss Pears winner in 1996 and his work was selected for the BP Awards at the National Portrait Gallery and shown at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
His paintings are cinematic in scope and narrative in approach, casting the viewer in the role of a detached non-judgemental observer. Aldo's intention is to capture a moment in time, rather like an individual frame from a feature film, and he does enjoy painting a number of linking pictures telling a story. Whilst the 'conversation' pieces encompass shared experiences the single figure works are often more provocative, contemplative and challenging. Although he keeps the era of his pictures timeless he does profess to a weakness for classic clothes on both men and women to emphasise their individual masculinity and femininity.
Shape and form are as important to Aldo as the people and places he paints and many of his pictures have been influenced by the patterns created by the body language he sees around him. The way a person holds their frame can often say far more about their feelings and intentions than their words and this inspires him to catch the mood of the moment. As he applies paint to canvas the character of his subjects develops and an imaginary sequence of events can unfold before him, all of which he endeavours to bring to life.