When Belinda Tarataglia's latest solo exhibition in the Masterworks Foundation's ‘Artists Up Front - Street' series opens this weekend, it will mark the culmination of a juggling act over many months. Like most amateur artists, she has had to balance her daily responsibilities, including a busy job and catering to her pets, with finding time to sit at her easel.

“The journey to where the paintings are finished and framed has been a blur,” she says. “In order to get ready for this show I had to put the gardening on hold (very difficult), do less housework (very easy), and paint. However, painting is something I must do and will do until, until...”

In fact, Mrs. Tartaglia is so passionate about painting that she numbers a quotation by George Bernard Shaw among her favourites: ‘The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art'.

“Even though my family will not drudge for anything, starve or go barefoot for my artistic career, I do feel that way,” she says. “However, in the real world, trying to be an artist, thinking on that ‘right side' when most of the world is thinking on the ‘left side' does not make for an easy life. I don't just ‘want' to paint, I ‘must' paint, therefore I will continue to live on ‘both sides' until I can use my ‘right' side more than my ‘left' on a daily basis.”

Yet it is not only as a painter that Mrs. Tartaglia is exhibiting. She is also a keen photographer, and her show will also include examples of this medium. She has chosen as its title, ‘Multiplicity of Life' - a reflection of her interest in a wide range of subjects.

“I have not become the type of artist who paints similar subjects all the time, and if that is good or bad I really don't know,” she says. “However, I am having a grand time painting the many things I find to paint, so for me it all works.”

Playing a major role in the discovery of subject material is her Jack Russell terrier, ‘Shoebox', revered ex-officio “boss” of the Tartaglia household, whose daily walks through such places as the Botanical Gardens have provided endless sources of inspiration.

“Walking Shoebox has been a great experience. I managed to get a few wonderful subjects to paint and photograph in the gardens, so I really do need to give him a hug,” his mistress says.

But the “teamwork” doesn't end there. Shoebox also insists on sitting on the artist's lap as she paints, keeping a watchful eye on the canvases in the interests of authenticity, while they both enjoy Mrs. Tartaglia's favourite performers, Andr? Bocelli and Kenny G.

Predominantly self-taught, Mrs. Tartaglia says that, at this stage in her artistic career, she is “happy” with her current body of work.

“I have a love of colour and a desire to paint that goes back to my colouring book and crayon days. However I feel, as I am sure most artists do at one time or another, that there is always room for improvement, and I shall improve and continue to grow as an artist.”

Asked how she sees herself and her future as an artist, the vivacious Mrs. Tartaglia responds with another favourite quote by Barbara Kingsolver which she clipped from a calendar and keeps pinned up in her home:

‘The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Right now I'm living that hope, running down its hallway and touching the walls on both sides'.

“That sums me up at this time - running down the hallway and touching the walls on both sides,” she says. “To me that quote means one thing: at this time in my life I am only touching the walls of painting, with the hope to one day plant myself firmly in the ‘art room' and produce wonderful works of art - constantly.”