His work, initially influenced by Graham Sutherland,[2] soon developed a strongly colouristic, expressive quality, his largely landscape-inspired subjects of the 1960s and 1970s being treated in an increasingly semi-abstract manner.

His influences drew on a wide range of sources – Pierre Bonnard, Peter Lanyon, John Hoyland and American abstract expressionists like Gorky and de Kooning among others.

By the time he had his first solo show at the Arnolfini Gallery in 1968, he had however arrived at an intensely personal style of his own, one that began to attract notice from the London critics, Neville Wallis of The Observer predicting that "one day Balmer will set Bond Street on fire".

[3] During the 1970s, Balmer sought to make a success of his photographic business and support his young family, largely withdrawing from exhibiting his work other than at the Royal West of England Academy where he had become an Associate member in 1955.

He inaugurated a year-round exhibition programme with solo shows being given to artists as distinguished as Richard Long, Bert Irvin, Gillian Ayres and Maurice Cockrill.