At Banksia & Bourke we purposefully select talented local Aussie textile designers to collaborate with.
With a wealth of local creative talent right here on our doorstep, we are incredibly lucky to support such passionate professionals who love design and colour as much as we do.
Our launch artist for our brand is the incredible, KATE BILLINGSLEY.
Kate hails from country Gippsland Victoria and is an Australian-based freelance surface designer and artist. Kate is multi-disciplined across a range of media including digital, watercolour, colour pencil and acrylic.
In her collaboration with Banksia & Bourke she has honed in on her watercolour talent to painstakingly create, hand drawn and one of a kind designs for our picnic blankets.
Q&A with Kate Billingsley
Who is Kate? Tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm a textile and jewellery designer based in Gippsland, Victoria. I've always created things in one way or another, but I've always come back to watercolour illustration as my favourite medium. I've been lucky enough to have been mentored by some incredible artists in animal portraiture and botanical illustration, which really helped me to develop my skills, and my own style. I completed a Certificate IV in Design and a Diploma in Surface Design at ISCD in Sydney in 2014. My great love is pattern, and I'm definitely a bit of a maximalist!
Who inspires your artwork?
Inspiration comes from everywhere - I love history, and I have travelled a bit, so any little nugget of knowledge could become a link to an idea! I think a big influence has come from growing up in a beautiful country garden - my Mum has hundreds of roses (many were gifted, taken from cuttings or rescued and brought back to life after bushfires).
What is your favourite person/place/thing to paint?
I absolutely love painting any kind of botanical. I also quite like painting challenging things, like shiny, pearlescent, iridescent, or white objects.
When you're not designing, what are you doing?
While I'm not a terribly dedicated gardener, I do have a large and productive vegetable garden that I'm quite proud of! I also volunteer with a local art collective once a week. Aside from that, I hula hoop, and started roller skating at the beginning of this year - but I'm pretty bad at it! There are also lots of beautiful bush walks in this part of the world, and when my sister is visiting we often go on food and wine adventures - Gippsland has some seriously amazing producers and makers!
Favourite memories from growing up in Australia?
My grandparents lived on the south coast of NSW, so every school holidays we would tetris ourselves and our luggage into the car (a very full landcruiser - I'm the eldest of 5, and we all came out fairly tall...) and drive for 8 hours to spend a week or two with them, walking to the beach to swim, watching the whales from the balcony, hand-feeding the birds, or just hanging out. It was probably punctuated with car sickness and tantrums, but it was really so perfect!
Kate's Website HERE
Kate's Instagram HERE
Artist Submissions
Would you like to see your artwork on a Banksia & Bourke product?
We're always looking for beautiful prints to feature on our picnic blankets.
So if you're a local artist and would like the opportunity to see your designs come to life, please get in touch with us at info@banksiaandbourke.com
