Image above: Jenny Bell Banners for life – Bees No 1 study 2022 vinyl paint on 300gsm magnani paper. Image courtesy Jenny Bell.
Jenny Bell has been interviewed by Richard Morecroft on the occasion of the opening of her current exhibition at Goulburn Regional Gallery, Jenny Bell: Life Forms, which comes ahead of her upcoming solo exhibition at Australian Galleries, Sydney in August 2023.
Life Forms at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery takes drawing as the underpinning of all of Bell’s work; its attendant close observation, rhythms and pattern-searching inform her life as both a regenerative farmer and an artist. The title of the exhibition plays on ‘forms’ as both a descriptor and immanent action. Bell’s lines form and morph, ‘as a hill becomes an eye socket and a mountain range gives way to a horse’s forehead.’
Bell’s bold, strongly-coloured and graphically distilled recent works share a heritage with her carefully observed charcoal line drawings and diverse oil paintings, spanning a practice of four decades. As Jenny explains to Richard Morecroft, her commitment to regenerative farming has played a major role in the evolution of her painting approach, allowing symbolic and imaginative elements to emerge.
Richard Morecroft is a well-known Australian broadcaster and arts interviewer. His interview with Jenny Bell forms part of an ongoing YouTube series, Exhibition, in which he interviews artists about their exhibitions on show.
Jenny Bell: Life Forms
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery
Civic Centre, 184 Bourke Street, Goulburn NSW 2580
23 June – 5 August 2023
Jenny Bell, Lifeforms
Australian Galleries, Sydney
15 Roylston Street, Paddington NSW 2021
10 – 27 August 2023