Hallard was born in the Midlands and trained initially as an engineer.  Leaving engineering for art, he moved to Cornwall in 1967 to establish a working studio and gallery in Mousehole, where he also showed the crafts of other artists alongside his own paintings.

Twenty years later he rediscovered an interest in the Midlands industrial landscape of his younger years, and involved himself in aspects of art for industry, receiving several important commissions nationally. From 1989 he also worked from his own 17th century studio in Dinan, Brittany, and from the late 1990s travelled regularly to New Zealand to paint.