Conversation with Ancient landscapes May 28th – June 28th 2026
The Turner House Gallery, Penarth
Kate Bell, Nia Bennett, Ellie Brown, Matt Cook, Yas Crawford, Nick Davies, Maryanne Hawes,
Verity Howard, Sasha Kingston, Sarah Persson, Philippine Sowerby, Paul Wearing
‘Conversations with Ancient Landscapes’ involves a collaboration between Welsh and Cornish artists who are responding to ancient landscapes/civilisations; exploring themes of geology and psychogeography, mytho-historical narratives, tracing connections through astrology, ancestral marking, ley lines and migration.
The outcomes from visiting sites in Wales and West Cornwall are seemingly less focussed on representation and more so with revealing individual interactions with the surroundings. Combined with scientific and historical interpretations, the exhibition also embodies a metaphysical nature; questioning the perceptible and the subjective nature of liminality, and echoing similar philosophies that
ultimately respond to our human connection with the landscape.
I am very excited to be part of this new exhibition ‘Conversations with Ancient Landscapes’ in May 2026 at The Turner House Gallery, Penarth.
These works are a visual journey through ancient landscapes, both internal and external, exploring the feminine in ancient stones and stone circles, creating a visual archaeology a sense of place embedded through sound, colour and mark making.
The sites in both Cornwall and South Wales I have visited and explored for this exhibition, are steeped in myth and folklore. Boskednan stone Circle which is also known as The Nine Maidens was believed to be a circle of female forms turned into stone for dancing on the sabbath , and Men-an -Tol, Penwith, a Neolithic stone menhir whose circular stone was said to be a portal between the living and the dead, , a symbolic entrance into the next world, and also a place of spiritual healing, fertility rituals and the supernatural. An alignment with an 18.6-year moon cycle echoes the feminine and the power of ley lines and celestial skies – thin place.
Preliminary sketch, Men an Tol, Penwith
Visiting these ancient sacred landscapes, the mystery and language of the stones evoke memories and connection, meeting natural forces in the placing of these strange forms in otherworldly landscapes endowed with incredible surface patterns of golden ochres, pale greens, reds and blue lichen immediately draws attention to the visual and physical sensations of being in a sacred place. The rhythms and sounds encouraging us to contemplate the passage of time and our place in this world.
Conversations with Ancient landcsapes
These are weather worn remnants of a distant past that still manage to retain their secrets. An unquiet landscape of real and imagined geographies, of the human cosmos and astroarchaeology.
They are ‘markers and witnesses for an unknown mythological past” and’ projections of mystical and spiritual significance’.
Itell Colquhoun with her esoteric and surreal views believed that the stone circles and monuments were ‘repositories still of ancient powers and living stones’.
These are stones that whispered and stones that danced.
Kate Bell 2026
Work in progress in the studio
Paintings 2025
Mumbles Art Collective Winter Show
The Image Revealed is a joint exhibition with Carys Evans commemorating the late Alastair Elkes Jones, at Ivy House Gallery, Llandeilo, September 5th – 20th 2025 http://ivy house gallery
oil on linen, 80 x 50 cm
oil on linen, 80 x 80 cm
Paintings 2024 -25
Simbiosis,
a solo show of paintings inspired by my recent travels to Costa Rica and by the mesmerising music of Manuel Obregon, a Costa Rican composer who recorded his piano compositions in the Rain-forest. On show at Kings Street Gallery, Carmarthen April 11th – 30th 2025
Paintings 2023 – 24
Semi abstract paintings very much creating a sense of place celebrating the coastal land and seascape of Gower.
Paintings 2023
New paintings in response to Manuel Obregón’s piano composition ‘Simbiosis’ recorded in the rain forests of Costa Rica after visiting and experiencing this wonderfully bio diverse climate.
Paintings 2022
The Lamp and the Veil series inspired by Vernon Watkins’ poetry – Sea Music for my Sister Travelling
Paintings 2020
Paintings 2019 – 2020
Erinna and The Waters, 50 x 50 cm, oil and charcoal on canvas, SOLD
Sea Rhythm 1, 30 x 30 cm, oil on linen
Sea Rhythm 2, 30 x 30 cm, oil on linen
Sea Rhythm 3, 30 x 30 cm, oil on linen
Mixon Sound , 50cm x 50 cm, oil on linen, SOLD
The Swigg,Inner Green Grounds 50cm x 50 cm, oil and charcoal on linen
The Ceaseless Myth of Moving Waves, 70 x 70 cm, oil and on linen, SOLD
The Immensity of Water 1, 100 cm x 80 cm, oil on canvas
Päivätär, Maiden of The Day, oil & cold wax on linen, 70 x 70 cm SOLD
SOLD
Mixon Sands 2, 60 x 30 cm, oil on canvas,
Mixon Sands 2, 60 x 30 cm, oil on canvas
In ancient European Folklore Thin place was believed to be a threshold place, a portal between this world and the next. Anomalies in the landscape were indicative of possible portals into other worlds. Archaeological traces can still be found in places “once imagined or believed to possess some kind of magical or sacred presence” (Healy: 2015:1)
Healy,C (2015) Thin Place, Exhibition Catalogue, Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Carmarthen
© Kate Bell and katebellart.com 2025
katebellart 