The works of Canadian printmaker Alistair Bell will be displayed at the downtown Nanaimo Art Gallery coinciding with what would’ve been the late artist’s 100th birthday.
He was born in Darlington, England on Oct. 21, 1913 and died in 1997.
“Rhythmically Repeated: Alistair Bell, new acquisitions” will run from Sept. 13 to Nov. 23 and Toby Lawrence, gallery co-ordinator, said 15 of 27 pieces donated by Bell’s son Alan will be part of the exhibition.
Drawings, watercolour paintings, a selection of prints and an original woodcut block print and corresponding print, entitled “Small Goose” will be included and some of the prints capture scenes that Nanaimoites might recognize.
“What’s really important about this collection is Alistair Bell spent a significant amount of time observing and depicting the B.C. landscape and that also included Vancouver Island,” Lawrence said. “We do have a couple of prints in the show that were inspired by places such as Yellow Point, near Nanaimo, and also Tofino. We have a piece in the show called ‘Perforated Rock 2,’ which is inspired by Yellow Point and a print from 1984 called ‘Trollers at Tofino.’”
She said what’s most interesting about Bell’s works are the way he expressed himself.
“The way that he used line and colour and contrast to express the emotion and feeling of the landscape and the wildlife he depicts as opposed to exact detail,” Lawrence said. “This way, it sort of gets at the rawness of the landscape and the areas he was depicting. So that sort of make his work interesting in a different kind of way.”
For more information, please call 250-754-1750 or go to www.nanaimoartgallery.com.
