Born 1934, London. Derek has had numerous solo and group exhibitions dating
back to 1958.

While exploring the Roman district of Trastevere, Balmer was struck by the sense
of long and profoundly layered human history embodied in the streets and buildings – churches particularly- of that ancient quarter.

These associations had a profound effect on him and continue to inform his works,
a series of paintings in which the overlapping architecture – catacombs, vaults and tombs and the remains of paintings and decorations, form a metaphor for the overlapping layers of human and sacred history.