About

photo credit Bernard Mitchell

I am a painter living and working in Mumbles, Swansea. Much of the inspiration for my colourful abstract and semi abstract landscapes comes directly from the coastline of Gower and my paintings attempt to capture the essence and the energy of place.

My work responds to the coastal landscape, through experience, myth, and legend. I am fascinated by combining art forms, responding to both music and the poetry of Vernon Watkins, through line, colour, texture and shape. I know the landscape of Gower well, having lived here for most of my life and this helps me to work through sketches and paintings both in the environment but also through memory and imagination back in the studio.

I have recently finished seven large paintings in a series of work inspired by recent travels to the Costa Rican rainforests, highlighting the fragile diversity of this extraordinary climate The work is also in response to the wonderfully atmospheric music of Manuel Obregon, a Costa Rican composer who recorded a series of piano compositions in the rainforests entitled ‘Simbiosis’ Simbiosis is the name of my current exhibition on show at King Street Gallery, Carmarthen April 11th – 30th 2025

I studied Fine Art and English in Canterbury and a PGATC from The University of Cardiff. I also have an MA in Fine Art from Swansea College of Art, UWTSD, for which I received a distinction. I have taught in both Secondary and Higher Art Education and have been a Lead Creative Arts Agent for the Arts Council of Wales. and was Events Organiser for the Friends of the Glynn Vivian from 2016 -2022. I am also a member of the Welsh Women’s Art Association and The Visual Arts Association.

In 2022, I founded the Mumbles Art Collective https://www.mumblesartcollective.com/ with fellow artist Emma Griffin, which now successfully showcases a variety of artists, including sculptors, glass artists, photography, ceramics, printmaking and jewellery.

I have had several solo and group exhibitions in Wales and London and I have works in private collections in the UK , the USA, New Zealand and Australia, and have had my work displayed at the Royal Cambrian Art Society Open 2025, I have also been shortlisted for the RWA and the VAA, and long listed for BEEP 2024, I was invited to exhibit in The Exhibition of Contemporary Welsh Painting in 2019 and was awarded First prize at Queen Street Gallery, where I had a solo show in February 2020, and again in July 2022.

You can see or purchase my work at ‘Queen Street Gallery’ https://www.queenstreetgalleryneath.co.uk and at https://www.ivyhousegallery.com/ The Ivy House Gallery, LLandeilo, and Tides Gallery https://tidesfineartgallery.com/ or online at ‘whitecourtart.com’ https://www.whitecourtart.com/kate-bell.

To arrange a viewing of additional work contact me for a visit at Elysium Gallery Studios, Mansel Street, Swansea.

https://www.axisweb.org/p/katebellart/

Kate Bell