JOHN M. BELL
About John M. Bell ...
John is an artist and teacher who lives in Augusta County, Virginia. Now retired after 29 years as an art professor at Blue Ridge Community College, John taught classes in drawing, painting, design, and art appreciation.
Of his artwork, John relates: “I seek to combine the visual sense of place and time with the subjective and aesthetic experience. For me, this may include anything from a 5,000 year old stone circle to the nut tree grove outside my door.
Art is a means for me to enhance my day-to-day experiences – to become more aware of emotions, colors, textures, memories – and then to translate those experiences into paintings. Hopefully, in seeing the work, viewers can have a similar experience and then take that awareness with them as part of their own lives.
My influences are wide-ranging and include Vincent Van Gogh, Thomas Cole, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, and many others.”
John earned his Master of Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) from James Madison University and Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (which included studies in Lucca, Italy).
He has shown his works throughout Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and California. He has had exhibitions at the Aisling Gallery (Washington, D.C.), the Arts Council of the Valley (Harrisonburg, VA), Bridgewater College (VA), and Eastern Mennonite University (VA). John received an international artist-in-residency at the Cill Rialaig Project in County Kerry, Ireland (2005).
