A. J. BELL

How

Painting is, for me, as good as meditation. The mind falls away. Calmness reigns. Hours pass while travelling in this other country, and there are surprises around every corner. My blood pressure goes way down, which is to the good. I'm a studio painter. Finishing a painting takes too long to allow me to paint in plain air. If I were to sit out under the sun working, I soon would be sitting out under the moon (and then the sun, and then the moon, again and again) before I reached any ending to a painting. The problem is that I paint predominantly with glazes, thinned down colours, transparent or translucent, layer after layer, up to a hundred layers thick in some places on the board, building up colour like thin sheets of overlapping glass. Even my darkest colours are transparent. I'm looking for clear depth, reletively thick but transparent enough that light can pass between the particles of pigment, bounce around inside the layers, reflect off both the white ground and the various colours then back out at the viewer. From any point in the painting, light of every colour should be making it to the eye. Only at the end do I start using opaques as a contrast to the transparent. This process is time consuming, and therefore, rather than painting in the open, I have to use sketches, small paintings from the real, and yes, even the dreaded photograph as resource material. Thankfully, through years of just plain looking, I have developed a relatively good memory for colour and composition, and I have become blessed with an active, visual imagination.

The works in the 'Ice on the Rocks' series are primarily representational. I find that it is necessary to do representational works so that I become familiar enough with particular parts of real places before I can move on to the more difficult task of interpreting reality through abstraction. I like to work both ends and the middle of the reality/abstraction dichotomy because abstraction allows a different type of emotional interaction with a painting than does representation. First I do some sketches. Then I do a few small paintings before working my way up in board size. (I work on wood not canvas. Canvas is too soft and the surface retreats too much from the brush stroke for my liking). Only then, in a step wise fashion, board after board, do I start on the difficult process of exploding the subject in both figurative time (keep looking and it becomes serial time) and in 2-D (or is that actually a thin 3-D) space. I hope that by this process I can catalogue a diverse but expressive interpretation of the emotional power of reality.

WHY
1

My central concern is the question, why does anything exist? The fact of existance is fascinating and astonishing. The universe is inexplicable, improbable, and totally incomprehensible, yet it teems and riots around us. Compared to the massive size of the universe, we are small, and it can terrify us if we look closely at creation's incredible vibrancy. But it is important for us to attend to everything around us. If we don't, we might never know who we are nor how we fit into reality. By looking and then painting, I try to contemplate the utter mystery of existence. What I see underpinning reality is that, even on the stillest day, everything is in movement and everything changes. Identity is mutable, nothing is permanent. Things go in and out of each other through the most amazing transformations. The wind scims water off the surface of the sea and sends it into the air to condence into clouds only in turn to fall as rain. Rushing streams grind down rocks and deposit the grit into the sea where over eons it becomes rock anew. And from sandy soil, trees grow tall enough to be blown down by the wind to enrich the soil. Lining the streets of a west coast city, a forest of holly trees grows out of the high crotches of ancient oaks and maples. Everything is energetically chaotic,changing places; and on our good days, we allow ourselves to see its beauty. I use my paintings to abstract out what I perceive to be the most intriguing, energetic and beautiful bits of the world. I try to explore the fine line between chaos and order, the knife edge of existence.

2

Shamans, from every time and place, would often find their heirs in those children who took delight in seeing unworldly beings, creatures and faces take shape in random rocks, sticks and clouds. I believe that a visual artist, although generations removed from the ancestor shaman, is someone who, by interpreting the ineffable mystery of being, makes a suggestive representation of the exuberant spirit inherent in all things, and who does so by using the simplest of materials.

In my paintings (using wood boards, ground pigments, plastic medium)I try to show what I see of the Earth's life force as it is revealed in the chaos of its diverse geology and life forms. I try to abstract out the teeming beauty of raw existence and distil it into an artefact, a visual mnemonic, a contemplative device to help strengthen an awareness of the necessary connection that exists between the viewer and the mystery inherent in the world we live in.

In my sculptural work, using simple stuff — a lump of firewood or a rotting stump — I try to show how all things strive to rise up and join the complex symphony of active life. My intent is to document the Universal--urge--to--become.

HISTORY

I was taking a number of third and fourth year studio courses in York University's Fine Arts department when one of my professors told me he thought it would be better for me if I simply went out and became a practicing artist (I was doing a lot of conceptual stuff at the time). I ignored his friendly advice for the next 28 years. Instead, I worked as a boat builder, furniture builder, cabinet maker and house carpenter. I only painted and sculpted when I could squeeze in the time. I moved to Galiano in 1989 and in 1990 started working at the Sturdies Bay ferry terminal, building my own home in my spare time. It wasn't until 2005 that I made visual arts my full time occupation/obsession. Since then I have curated a number of shows with Kenna Fair and in 2008 I was opne of a group of artists who founded Island's Edge Gallery of Fine Art.