Artist's sketch-a-day project inspires new wall hangings

After a particularly challenging few years, Melbourne artist Belinda Marshall decided to start 2014 afresh; setting herself the task of creating a new sketch as close to daily as possible.

Giving her the freedom to experiment with form and colour in a way that large paintings don’t afford, she was able to come up with a variety of ideas that have now been transformed into larger works.

A selection of these have been reproduced as both fine art reproduction prints and her first range of textile wall hangings, produced in collaboration with local digital textile printer Frankie & Swiss.

The combined collection has been titled Organised Freedom, inspired by one of Belinda’s favourite artists, Bjork. “The name comes from a quote from an early Bjork song: ‘I thought I could organise freedom, how Scandanavian of me!’, which I guess is what the daily project is, and all my strictly full on domestic schedule allows work-wise!”

Being Belinda’s first major body of work following recovery from major illness and a separation from her husband, it was also significantly informed by her experience of travelling to Sweden to participate in Camilla Engman’s prolific ACE camp, which Belinda funded herself through a highly successful Pozible campaign.

“My work did change quite a bit after the big personal life events, but the change in style also coincided with my trip to Sweden and Berlin,” says Belinda. “These factors resulted in the change of style to a more free-flowing, more purely abstract way of working.”