mixed media on paper, signed and dated '84
mounted, framed and under glass

Note: Painter and teacher, born in Leeds, Yorkshire, where he attended the College of Art, 1947–52. For several years until mid-1950s he then taught at Harrogate College of Art. On the suggestion of the painter Terry Frost, Bell and his wife sold up their home and motorcycled to Cornwall to work in St Ives. In Yorkshire Bell had painted industrial landscapes, but in Cornwall his work took a new direction, and while still landscape-based he became concerned with land-shape and sea interactions which created abstract pictures. After short periods in Italy Bell took up a Gregory Fellowship at Leeds University in 1960. A number of teaching posts in Britain and America followed until in the mid-1970s he returned to Florida State University, Tallahassee. Bell showed with Penwith Society of Arts from 1956, at Tate Gallery and New Art Centre in group shows. In 1995 a group of his pictures was exhibited at Tate Gallery St Ives and in 1995–6 he was included in the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition. Had a series of solo exhibitions with Waddington Galleries from 1958; Whitechapel Art Gallery; Florida State University; and in 1998 The New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, celebrated Bell’s return to Cornwall with his first major show at a private venue since his return to Britain. It gave him further shows in 2003 and 2004–5, Tate St Ives in 2004–5 giving Bell a show entitled Beyond Materiality: Paintings and Drawings 1967–2004. Arts Council holds his work.