I've never really let go of that childlike wonder.

And I think that shows through in my art.

[open music] I'm Alexandra Brooke.

I'm an artist and illustrator, otherwise known as Belleartiste.

[music] I know my palette is quite colorful.

I think a lot of people that will glance at my work assume that it's for children.

But if you really look at it, it can appeal to anybody.

[music] It's not loud and in your face.

It's just joyful.

I suppose whimsical, quirky.

And I think those things can appeal to anybody.

[music] I guess I just grabbed any material that was around and then I didn't really start exploring paint until I was in university and took a painting class.

I loved the vibrancy of the color of the paint.

It wasn't something that I can achieve just with pen or pencil.

So it added something to the whimsy side of my art that just gave it a little bit more punch.

So I guess that's kind of my favorite medium right now.

[music] I use acrylic paint.

It's totally unforgiving.

It doesn't have like an extended open time, like oil paint would.

Basically, when it's dry, it's dry and that's it.

And that works well for me because I like to paint quickly.

I don't do any sketching hardly ever if I'm just doing a piece on the fly.

Like most of these pieces here, there's no sketching first.

I just paint brush to canvas immediately.

[music] My fellow artists in the gallery here laugh at me sometimes because I'll pull off a piece in a couple hours and they'll be working on one for a few weeks to months.

But I like that.

I like working quickly and I don't like overthinking things.

I find it really disrupts my creative process.

[music fades] [music] I consider myself small still.

I'm happy with the way I reach my small audience.

I think because I'm a traditional artist, you know, a piece takes time where, as with digital art, you can make your marks and then mass produce it, and it's going to be identical every single time.

You can't do that with traditional art.

You can't replicate it.

And that's what makes it original.

[music] It's about passion for me.

It's not, it's not about money.

When I first started here, my husband said he said, Oh, you should do like landscapes and quail and vineyards and stuff.

And I thought, Well, I could, but this is what I choose to do for myself, because this is why I went back into it was for me, it wasn't.

It wasn't to sell to other people.

It was a part of me that I had forgotten about for a while.

I was like, What is missing?

There's something missing.

And.

It was art.

Like, I hadn't done anything for a while.

You know, he had a totally different perspective.

He's like, Make some money, right?

I'm like, No, that's not what's happening.

[laughs] I'm doing it for me.

This is what I'm doing.

And if people like it, if they can relate to it and it makes them happy, then it'll just keep me making more.