Early Life and Artistic Training Born in Belfast in 1943, Brian Ballard showed an early aptitude for the brush and charcoal during his formative years. In 1954, he was a pupil at Annadale Grammar School, a place noted for its particular friendliness toward the arts. It was within these school walls that the seeds of his creative ambition were first sown, as he began to develop the keen eye that would later define his approach to the c…