From Dillons' First Floor Window

From Dillons' First Floor Window
(Oil on board) Private Collection.

We went out to a Private View last night at a gallery new to me - the Bewicks Gallery Space in Gateshead Civic Centre. We'd been invited to a preview of work by Tom Bromly OBE, Dean of Newcastle Polytechnic (the forerunner of Northumbria University) Faculty of Art and Design until his retirement in 1992.

I liked the show very much, although I preferred his more designed/abstracted compositions to the straightforward studies and paintings of trees. I chatted to an old friend for a while and then, as we were taking a second glass of wine for a second turn around the gallery, someone came up to me and said:

"You're Harry Bell, aren't you? I bought a painting of yours a long time ago and I still love it!" We were joined by his wife who said "You're Harry Bell! You painted my favourite painting!"

The oil painting was From Dillons' First Floor Window and it was sold in 1995 from my first solo show. It was always a favourite of mine and here was the man who bought it twenty years ago, still enthusing about it now. 

Don't you just love it when that happens?

Hello & Welcome

It’s been a long time coming, but it was inevitable really. Once the blog changed from being an on-line writing exercise to the artist’s blog it is now, I knew it would be only a matter of time before I’d cast off the Mr Zip persona and add this to the surprisingly large number of references the Interweb holds about me.

Other bloggers have begun referring to me as “Harry” anyway, and the sidebar links and references to “Harry Bell artwork” were definitely a bit of a giveaway.

It took some time to trawl through the back catalogue of postings to make sure I hadn’t said anything rude about anyone who might now find me more easily and then be offended. But apart from a couple of totally irrelevant posts which I deleted, and a bit of bad language that I left alone on the basis that it was how I felt at the time, I haven’t changed a thing.

So here we are, a new look to the blog and a more open approach to the world. And now, more than ever, your comments are encouraged and welcome.