BELINIUM: The Universe Behind the Art
Interview with Belinha Silva
1. Please tell us something about your background and your art journey so far.
I was born in Portugal and, as a very young child, I left to live in different countries across Europe. Growing up surrounded by different cultures deeply shaped my sensitivity and the way I see the world.
From my earliest memories, art has always held a special place in my life. As a child, I spent my time drawing, painting and creating, and I also took part in art competitions, where I received my first awards.
I did not study Fine Arts, but finance. My artistic journey therefore developed through my own curiosity, intuition, experimentation and desire to create. Even during the years when I was not creating, my artistic sensitivity remained deeply rooted in me.
Then, in 2005, in Brussels, I experienced what I can only describe as a true “Revelation.” During my very first art workshop, I discovered that creation was no longer simply a pleasure. It had become an imperative, a deep necessity, bringing me an extraordinary sense of freedom and joy. From that moment, I began searching for my own artistic language through different materials and forms of expression.
For many years, I created purely for myself. My home gradually became almost a private gallery, filled with paintings, sculptures and painted porcelain pieces. My family and friends constantly encouraged me to show my work, but that was never my goal. I created selfishly, solely for the pleasure of creating.
In 2020, during Covid, I secretly submitted one of my works to a competition, simply to see how the artistic world would react. I had no idea what to expect. To my great surprise, the work received an award. I was deeply touched and amazed that my art could receive such recognition. This first experience gave me the confidence to begin showing my work and participating in exhibitions.
Since then, my artistic journey has continued to grow, while remaining faithful to what has always driven me: the need to give form to my imagination and share my universe.
2. Can you tell us more about the themes in your art and what inspires you?
My art is difficult to place within a single category because my inspiration does not come from one particular subject. It comes from life itself, from everything I see, feel, experience and imagine.
I have always had a very vivid and fertile imagination. When I look at something, I rarely see only what is physically there. My mind immediately transforms it, associates it with something else and begins to imagine a story. What I see therefore becomes only a starting point. I reinterpret it and incorporate elements from my imagination until it becomes something new.
There is almost always a dialogue between the abstract and the figurative in my paintings. Abstract forms can be the starting point, while figures, animals, silhouettes or scenes emerge, hide within or become intertwined with the composition. I love this boundary between what is immediately recognizable and what leaves room for imagination.
My multicultural childhood and the different European countries in which I lived have also greatly nourished my openness to the world. Places, people, cultures, landscapes and experiences can all become unexpected sources of inspiration.
My works often contain much more than what can be seen at first glance. Characters, animals, scenes, stories and sometimes entire little worlds can emerge through the forms, colours and textures. I love the idea that viewers can return to a work and discover something new each time. Sometimes I even discover forms or characters myself while creating, as if the artwork were suggesting its own story.
Experimentation is essential to my practice. In 2017, this exploration led me to develop my signature technique, Porcelain Fusion on Canvas, combining painted porcelain fragments with painting on canvas to create a tactile, textured and three-dimensional dimension.
For me, art is not about reproducing reality. It is about transforming reality through imagination.
3. How does your art life impact other parts of your life?
Art is my soul.
Art is part of the way I live, think, feel and see the world. I live through art. I travel through art. I eat, dress, imagine, design and look at the world through art. I can look at almost anything and immediately begin transforming it in my mind into something artistic. It is simply the way I perceive life.
Even when I am not physically creating, my imagination never stops. Experiences, places, people, colours, textures and emotions remain within me and can later reappear transformed in a work.
At the same time, my life constantly nourishes my art. Travelling, discovering new places, immersing myself in different cultures and observing the world around me continually enrich my imagination. Almost any experience can become the starting point for a future creation.
I also notice details that others may not necessarily see: a particular shape, colour, texture, light or unexpected combination of things. This artistic way of seeing influences my everyday life just as much as my life feeds my art.
I cannot really separate the two. Life feeds my imagination, my imagination feeds my creation, and my creation transforms the way I look at life.
For me, art is therefore not simply one part of my life. It is the way I perceive my life.
4. Tell us about your best experience in the art world so far.
I believe that the experience that has touched me most deeply in the art world was receiving the invitation to Lecce, Italy, to receive the MENELAO Grand Prize. It marked a true turning point in my artistic journey.
To understand why, I have to go back to 2020. During Covid, I submitted my work to an international art competition simply to discover what people outside my circle, particularly art professionals, would think of it. I received my first award, and that recognition changed something in me. I began to understand that perhaps my art needed to leave my home and be shown to the world.
Then, in October 2022, I received an email informing me that I had been chosen for the MENELAO Grand Prize in Lecce. I initially thought it was a hoax and did not reply. Ten days later, they contacted me again, and I had also received an official invitation by post. I finally called them myself to make sure it was genuine.
I went to Lecce, where I took part in a filmed interview the day before the ceremony. The following day, the ceremony was truly majestic, with dancing, live music and the presence of many Italian personalities.
I was invited onto the stage to receive the MENELAO statue, an official certificate and the honorary title “Honorificentiam Artium Meritis al Maestro – Belinha Silva.”
I was overwhelmed with emotion and joy. I cried and had great difficulty speaking. Despite all these emotions, I managed to express my deepest gratitude to the jury who had chosen me for this honour.
It remains without a doubt the most memorable moment of my artistic life.
Since then, I have received more than twenty international distinctions, including a Gold Medal from the Société des Auteurs et Artistes Francophones in France. Another important moment awaits me on October 24, 2026, when I will have the honour of receiving a major distinction from the Académie des Sciences, Arts et Lettres.
But MENELAO will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the first major recognition that made me realise that my art had truly gone beyond the walls of my home and entered the international art world.
5. Is an artist’s life lonely? Please share your thoughts and experiences.
For me, the life of an artist is not lonely in the sense that I might feel alone. On the contrary, I deeply love creating on my own.
In order to truly create, I need to enter my “bubble”, to isolate myself and not let anyone disturb me. It is in this space of freedom and silence that my inspiration comes, my characters appear and my universe develops.
This is also why I could never see myself as an art teacher or creating in traditional group workshops. Constant interaction and interruption would disturb my creative process. For me, artistic creation needs to be deeply personal and solitary. This solitude is not a constraint; it is essential to my way of creating.
At the same time, I am very open to the world. My inspiration comes from travelling, meeting people, discovering different cultures and everything I experience around me.
These are two different worlds, but absolutely complementary: the outside world nourishes my imagination, and solitude allows me to bring it to life.
I embrace this way of creating because it corresponds profoundly to who I am as an artist.
6. What are you working on at the moment and are there any upcoming events you would like to talk about?
Something very particular happened to me during August 2026: I suddenly realised that everything I had created since the beginning of my artistic journey might not have been a succession of independent works, but fragments of the same universe.
A universe that had been there all along, without me having given it a name.
And that name appeared: BELINIUM.
BELINIUM was therefore born in August 2026, but its existence goes much further back. It was already present in my paintings, my characters, my creatures and my imaginary worlds. August did not create this universe; it allowed me to recognise it.
Today, I can finally give it a name, an identity and a direction: BELINIUM – An Artistic Universe created by Belinha Silva.
I now wish to develop BELINIUM as a true international artistic universe, in which each work can become a chapter, with its characters, creatures, places, stories and worlds. My intention is not simply to present paintings, but to allow viewers to enter a universe they can observe, search through and explore. The viewer becomes an explorer.
I am currently thinking about developing BELINIUM beyond painting, with the possibility of sculptures, installations, books, videos and eventually immersive exhibitions.
BELINIUM has become much more than a name. It has become my passion, my motivation and the artistic direction I now want to pursue fully. I also know that an artistic universe of this dimension cannot be built entirely alone. I would like to surround myself with professionals who understand its vision and can help me structure it, develop it and bring it to an international audience while preserving what makes it essentially mine.
BELINIUM is not a break with my artistic journey. It is a new way of understanding everything I have created until now and giving it continuity.
I feel that I am only at the beginning of this discovery.
BELINIUM was born as a name in August, but the universe was already there.
I did not imagine it: I revealed it.
Website: https://www.belinhacreations.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/belinhacreations/
