Last summer the Catto directors arrived at the Mall Galleries to decide the recipient of our Society of Women Artists Exhibition award. There was amazing work on display. But we quickly zeroed in on the remarkable paintings of Belinda Eaton. Her arresting portraits of giant birds and tattooed women took our collective breath away. We had found our winner.

Belinda's prize included a show at the gallery Now that time has arrived, and we couldn't be more delighted to provide a showcase for one of the UK's most compelling painters. In fact, the show concludes an eventful few months for Belinda. As well as scooping the Catto award, she also appeared on primetime TV. She was chosen as one of the guests artists on the BBC's Extraordinary Portraits. The programme, hosted by Bill Bailey, commissioned portraits of NHS staff.

Belinda certainly had the life experience to justify her selection. She was born in Kenya, schooled in Franco's Spain and earned her art degree from St Martins in London. However, she also spent time in New York, France and Karachi. It added up to a nomadic life during which she encountered "wailing witches who counted their age in potatoes in a small Moorish village, crazy nights of graffiti and rap and the surrealism of a forgotten Clint Eastwood spaghetti western movie set."

Belinda says these experiences have given her the perspective of the outsider and infused her singular artistic vision. All of this is evident in her debut show, in which heavily inked gang members exist side by side with succulent dahlias and beautiful women in patterned headwear. Stylistically, the paintings reveal a range of very diverse influences too. Belinda says she is inspired by everything from early renaissance painter Pierro della Francesca to French Impressionist Vuillard to rap music videos.