John Bell

Artist's Statement

My early education was in the 70’s at Prahran College of Advanced Education, in Melbourne. Coming from an artistic family, it was relatively easy for me to seriously consider painting as a vocation.

Throughout my adulthood, juggling family and career, I continued to hone and develop ideas and concepts about the nature and relevance of painting in a post-object art world. My early work in College was abstract – using the modern (at that time) concoctions of acrylic paint.

The work I produced mainly consisted of large canvases employing a narrow range of colour, but tonally rich, with strong rhythms. They were largely influenced by the Abstract Expressionists of America – Pollock, DeKooning and Kline, as well as the early Pop artists- Rauchenberg and Rivers.

As I matured, I seemed drawn back to the figurative in landscapes and people; a shift which caused a friend to kid me about being “ an abstractionist in disguise” Inspired afresh by the work of Henri Matisse I reaffirmed retaining nature as my inspiration, and freely drew from visual stimuli.

In the early 90’s I was challenged by my recent mentor and fellow artist Alan Tulloch to work with oil paints, which I had formerly avoided. It was love at the very first: finally I had the right means with which to model my recent acquaintance with the representational in painting.

I have exhibited variously in Ipswich, West End, Fortitude Valley, and the City, and am represented in private collections around Brisbane North Queensland, Melbourne, and New Zealand.

 

 

 

website: www.johnbell.net.au/