John Bell: A Retrospective

An exhibition celebrating the breadth and beauty of John Bell's work, honouring an artist for whom art was always the priority.

From 2003 until his death in 2022, John Bell lived in Wells-next-the-Sea, where he was known for his expressive watercolours of the harbour, coastline and town. He exhibited regularly with the Society of East Anglian Watercolourists and intermittently with the Institute of East Anglian Artists.

Earlier in life he worked in forestry in the south of England while developing his art. An invitation to study at the Royal Academy Schools in the late 1960s strengthened his lifelong commitment to drawing, and his sketches of dancers at Ballet Rambert, now held in the Rambert Archive, reveal his fascination with movement and anatomy.

He painted wherever he travelled, from Norfolk to France and Spain, guided by his devotion to capturing light, landscape and the human form.