Love the collection of prints over at Little Paper Planes more than ever.

Oh, the one below from Debbie Carlos too.

I am so very happy to have Belinda with us at LL&O, on a grey & rainy day her work lifts my heart. I want to bathe in those beautiful, rapturous colours, float and spin in the air amongst abstract shapes that are full of joy, somehow! Grab your comfiest chair and say hello to Belinda, a treat indeed.

Tell us a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“I live in an inner city suburb of melbourne {Australia} with my husband and our two little boys. I like to be close to great cafes and galleries and walk to most places I need to get to {I don’t have my lisence!}.”

“My work is mainly mixed media ~ a mix of drawing and painting, drawing and collage, painting and collage, block printing and drawing! I work with whichever medium appeals to me at the time. they all have their different attractions to me {physically and aesthetically} and it usually depends on my mood as to what I go with! Sometimes I have a clear image in my head as to what the piece might be, but most often just a vague inkling or feeling. I love to make quick sketches as I work ~ often the best ideas come from working. Sometimes the sketches form part of a new series or the next piece. I like to work on a few pieces at once or have a few in progress.”

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

“I draw inspiration from reliable sources like magazines, galleries & the internet and incidental sources like: colour combinations that I see in daily life that pop out {an almost fluro orange cup floating in a white bath tub, a vermillion flower against a dark grey wall with soft chalky green leaves}; landscapes ~ a memory of the Swiss Alps from a boat on a lake, cane fields, the ocean ~ especially on an overcast day; a blurry background; watching my kids draw & paint ~ they have no self-imposed limitations or judgement stopping the flow of ideas. They use colour and shape indiscriminately.”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why?Please tell us the story behind the piece.

“I chose ‘Late Night Mist’ because it’s pretty new and I’m happy with it! The ‘mist’ paintings are my favourite pieces to work on ~ I find it really relaxing to paint the shapes of the mist and to see how the different levels of transparent white turn out over the other layers of colour.”

“It has a very brief story: this is an imagined landscape in the deep of night when the light is misty and the individuals who live in the hills have something important to say!”

“Thanks so much lisa for having me on your gorgeous blog.”

You can find Belinda in these places:
Gretchenmist Etsy Shop
Blog
Flickr

Don’t you feel a little happier looking at Belinda’s lovely work, those colours really sing don’t they? Thank you so much Belinda for joining us, it has been such a pleasure learning some more about you.

Hooray, I’m so glad the interviews are back, they really are such a joy to work on. Who will be up next week kittens, a little clue, we will be looking to the east.

I was fairly succesful in my endeavour to buy handmade this Christmas, a notable exception being my Dad, all he wanted was an Amazon gift voucher so that he could buy accessories for his Nintendo Wii. I can’t tell you how disconcerting it is to witness this huge man flailing around in front of the TV, lost in his virtual world! It is something I never would have imagined I would see. The march of technology has been inexorable even in the short time (relatively!) since I was a child in the 1970s. OK, on with some of the handmade joy I gave last Christmas! The badge/pin heading up the post is from Little Sparrows.

Post Card from Belle & Boo. Embroidered Shoes from Tiny Happy. Bird Gift Tags from Astulabee. Scarf from Foil. Wedding Birds from Astulabee. Cloudie from Happy Friends. Twig, Bird Ornament & Jackalope from Astulabee.

Ok, I confess, I cheated a bit and included some of the things I got for our wedding or bought as Christmas presents to myself! They are so lovely they deserve to be here too. Most of the wonderfulness from Astulabee above belongs in my forthcoming wedding day post. I am so looking forward to sharing the stories behind our beloved twigs and birds with you. Also, the little Cloud from Happy Friends, Cloudie, has a little story behind her too. Soon, soon, soon I hope!

I bought one of these totes for myself a while back. I adore Julia Pott’s work and had to pass the joy on to a dear friend! These totes are available from Etsy Labs. Sit back and enjoy some more of Julia’s funny, touching and beautifully drawn illustrations with me!

I have quite a few of Julia Pott’s prints already, including the one above, the small version! I am so looking forward to collecting some more when I can convince Adam that we don’t have enough art prints, unframed and neglected in the house. My next major project is to get all of the wonderful prints I have collected into frames and up on the walls. I am picky about frames and they are hard to find here on The Island. I managed to score two wonderful ones yesterday and plan to reveal them to the world via this blog on Monday!

Note to Adam: We really do *need* all of the prints above!

I will more than likely be taking a little blog break over the weekend so that we can work on our redesign and get the new fonts up. I may however succumb to blog fever and post something to tide me over. Do come back and see me soon my lovely friends.