Belinda Kemp is a self-taught visual artist who adores blue and green, and lives in Melbourne with her two young children. Her work is a delicate and quirky mix of memory, imagination, wide open spaces, hopefulness, gardens and sweetness. A long-time illustrator and mixed media artist, she has only recently turned her efforts to creating patterns for printing on fabric.
‘music festival’
I have always been drawn to Belinda’s work, because of her colour choices (I love me a soft cool palette!), the delicacy of her shapes, and her use of space. And I am lucky enough to have one of her prints (‘camp site near the lake’) to hang on my wall.
‘inspiredby’
‘thinking of you’
Belinda’s beautiful work is characterised by areas of not-quite-flat colour, layered with textured brush and areas patterned with spots and dots. Her colours are very much centred around the palette of blue/aqua/green with pops of red, and splashes of very cool yellow and mustard. Her lines are organic, delicate and spidery, and float around and over the areas of colour, creating some fabulous contrasting details.
‘papercut – square’
‘open flower’ – mustard yellow
And her fabric prints. Lovely they are. Layered and sensual, there is always a sense of space and quiet; full but not busy. Impressively, she somehow manages to evoke the sense of mystery and quietness of camping, without the accompanying realities of insects and soggy boots. (By the way, I LOVE camping; family camp at the beach every year for me!)
Belinda’s work has deservedly been featured in many, many magazines and online, including Australian Home Beautiful Magazine, Maeve Magazine, decor8, ScoutieGirl, frankie, designmilk, papernstitch blog, Modish, and designformankind.
‘collage’ cushion
‘collage’ cushion covers – reverse
Belinda was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of last year. She is currently dealing with the challenge and discomfort that that brings, and admirably, is still keeping her shop on Etsy open, and still writing on her blog. I wish her joy, peace, and good health for the future.You can find Belinda’s work on Etsy. More examples of her work are on her own website here, and you can follow her progress on her blog here.
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I would like to thank Belinda for her kind permission to use her images and words.