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Theia One

By Belinda Wiltshire

Belinda Wiltshire is a visual artist working predominately as a figurative oil painter. Within her more recent works the artist utilises both non-objective abstract and finely detailed figurative elements. Combining these opposing painting styles brings to the surface her unique culmination of visual rhythm.

Born in Geelong, Belinda relocated to Melbourne in 1999 to study Clothing Industry (RMIT) and Costume Design (Swinburne). She has resided and based her practice in Melbourne’s Northern suburbs since then, and has been exhibiting in solo and group shows since 2002.

The painting series “Theia” by Belinda Wiltshire is seeded in the Giant Impact Hypothesis. – Theia, the hypothesised ancient planet is proposed to have collided head on with the early Earth around 4.5 billion years ago, the debris gathering around Earth to form the early Moon.

Until recent years astronomy had always played a background role in Belinda’s work, a concept on which to muse and reflect on from a very human perspective, but with her most recent bodies of work (Astral Arrangements, and Theia) the theme is becoming much more prevalent.

Belinda draws on her natural curiosity for the vastness of the known and unknown universe through suspending her figures in untethered perspectives amidst abstract plains, and moving her compositions abruptly between moments of calm and flurries of ferocity. Belinda also creates subliminal movement within her compositions by building up masked areas of textured moulding paste, opaque colours, and oil sticks. In her preliminary stages Belinda designs and tailors costumes for her models, then works closely with them in creating reference images, all shot from an aerial perspective.

oil on board 72x62cm framed