Where: Municipal Hall, 750 17th Street, West Vancouver

Opening Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
 

Artist Statement:

Linda Bell’s formal education and background are in nursing, education, and health care administration, but she has always had a deep interest in art. While she has taken a number of classes and taken advantage of the many resources available online, Linda considers herself a “self-taught” artist. She has learned from others, as well as through experimentation and a fair amount of trial and error.

Linda has been painting on and off for many years, starting with a couple of basic watercolor courses in West Vancouver when her children were young. Over time, she gravitated toward using acrylics and began experimenting with collage and incorporating other media. During this period of exploration with different materials, she also found herself increasingly drawn to abstraction. Linda now considers herself an abstract artist, with most of her paintings blending realism and abstraction. While she also creates non-objective abstracts, the works in this exhibition reflect varying degrees of abstraction.

She often uses her imagination, along with real objects, as a starting point for her paintings. By playing with shapes, color, perspective, bold lines, and patterns, Linda has developed a distinctive style. This approach to painting evolved naturally over time. She vividly remembers when another artist called her years ago to say they had seen some of her paintings in an exhibition and recognized them as hers immediately because of her unique style. Linda was surprised—but also pleased—by this comment.

Working with mixed media and exploring abstraction allows Linda to keep the joy and spontaneity in painting. She enjoys injecting a sense of whimsy into her work whenever she can, and it delights her when her art makes someone smile or laugh.

Artist Bio:

Linda Bell is an award-winning Canadian artist who works primarily with acrylic paints, often incorporating paper collage and mark-making media such as pens, pencils, and crayons into her work. She has earned Signature Status (SFCA) with the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) and Signature Status with the International Society of Acrylic Painters (ISAP).

Linda’s work is featured in private collections across Canada and the United States, and some of her paintings have appeared in television series and movie productions filmed in British Columbia. Her art has been recognized in prominent publications, including Incite 3: The Best of Mixed Media, Acrylic Works 4: Captivating Color, and most recently, The Artists Magazine 2024 Edition: The Best of Acrylic. Additionally, Linda’s work has been featured in numerous issues of the FCA’s Art Avenue Magazine, with her paintings gracing the cover three times.