For any artist, finding time to create art can be a challenge. For Belinda Nadwie, prolific painter and mother of three, the few hours that she gets to paint each day are her moments of peace, her chance to reflect and create.
With all of the pressures of everyday life at her door, Nadwie no longer feels fear when starting a new work or staring at a blank canvas — instead, she sees it as a chance for self expression, and she makes the most of every opportunity she can to work on her paintings.
The result is an explosion of colour and texture on a canvas. Nadwie opts for thick oils on canvas, creating layers upon layers of shades that invite the eye and create whimsical and bold works.
Not one to shy away from a challenge, she works mostly on canvases that are bigger than she is — the more room she has to create, the better. It’s this passion, drive, and ingenuity that makes her Art Lovers Australia’s most recent feature artist.
Nadwie has been attracted to painting since she was a child. Her parents owned a paddle boat business in Sorrento, Victoria, and from the age of five, she would spend her time painting landscapes onto seashells she picked up in the area, selling her paintings to, as Nadwie herself puts it, “very obliging tourists,” until she would have enough money to buy ice creams for herself and her brother.
It was an industrious start for the young artist, and comes from a determination to create that Nadwie carries through with her to this day. She emphasises the importance of embracing our quirks and our differences, and using them to empower our creations.
The works that she creates now are of a much greater scale than her first paintings, but are created with just as much drive. As bold as her works are with Nadwie’s honed understanding of colour, what helps draw the eye is her use of texture, which makes the viewer want to reach out and touch and feel the work on the canvas. In I Will Mystify You, the combination of bright pinks and bold blues against a strong back background make the canvas pop in an explosion of colour and intensity. The colours emerge from under each other, fighting for dominance against the black background in an intriguing and delighting work.
Nadwie’s use of colour extends across all her work — Romance Me is a brighter work, explosions of green and purple that swirl together and distill the very essence of spring onto a canvas. Make Me Blush, a symphony of blues and pinks against a pale textured backdrop, harnesses Nadwie’s ambition of leaving viewers with a sense of peace and love when they look upon her work, creating a harmony of colour, light, and texture.
Belinda Nadwie’s work is available for purchase through Art Lovers Australia.