Bio
Peggy Bell, AOCA, BEd. Is an abstract painter living in Victoria BC. From the tradition of landscape painting she has developed a visual language in abstraction.
Peggy taught high school art in Toronto for 18 years. Teaching strong design principles to students had an impact in her developing creative work. Upon retirement in 2016 she immersed herself in landscape painting, in both rural and urban environments. The pursuit of abstraction followed, allowing more choices to come from within, and directed by systematic and deductive explorations. Colour, gesture, surface treatment, tools and materials, were considered with the intension of developing a uniquely personal visual expression. Current influences are Louis Morris, Jack Bush, Gerhardt Richter and Sean Scully.
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Birch Plywood features highly as the substrate (surface) for Peggy's paintings, although she also explores works on washi and linen canvas. Beautiful wood grain can be seen through transparent layers of colour. The artist does not consider wood to be a renewable resource, given that forests are clear cut much faster than they are regenerated. Peggy's settler ancestors in the Ottawa Valley made their family's privileged start by receiving logging licences along the Ottawa and Magnetawan Rivers on original Algonquin territorial lands in what is now Ontario, Canada. We have a problematic relationship with the earth's resources. It is hoped that a valued art object is among the better uses of wood.
Peggy now lives on Lekwungen Territory, known as Victoria, BC, where she works at Rockslide Studio. She is represented there by Gallery Merrick.
Peggy Bell Artist - CV
Representation
Gallery Merrick, Victoria, BC
Solo Shows
Evocations, Errant ArtSpace, Victoria, BC, April 2022
Urban Canopy, First Unitarian Church, Toronto, ON, October 2020
A City of York Portrait, City of York Municipal Building Gallery, Toronto, ON, 1994
Group Shows
Rockslide Studio - Open Studio Tour, Victoria, BC, April 2023
Rockslide Studio - Open Studio Tour and Holiday Market, Victoria, BC, Dec 2022
Rockslide Studio - September Open Studio Tour, Victoria, BC, September 2022
Moss Street Paint In with Errant ArtSpace, Victoria, BC, July 2022
Twist Gallery - Surfacing: Emerging Artists from Project Art Toronto, Toronto, ON, June 2022
Propeller Gallery - Salon 16: Love is in the Air, Toronto, ON, February 2022
Errant ArtSpace - Winter Warm-Up,Victoria, BC December 2021
Errant ArtSpace Member’s Pop Up, Victoria, BC,- June 2021
Huntsville Art Society, Members Show, Huntsville, ON, 2020
The Print Show, Gerrard Art Space, Toronto, ON, April 2020
Artists of the Limberlost at the Summit Centre, Huntsville, ON, February - May 2019
Artists of the Limberlost Studio Tour, Lake of Bays, ON, August 2017, 2018, 2019
The Plein Air Show, Gerrard Art Space, Toronto, ON, July 2017
What a Relief! Woodblock Printmaking Exhibition, Gerrard Art Space, Toronto,ON, July 2016
TDSB Art Educator's Exhibit, Propeller Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2013, 2014
Cedar Ridge Creative Centre Members Show, Cedar Ridge Creative Centre, Scarborough, ON, 1997
A Muskoka Thanksgiving, represented by Suzanne Musters Fine Art, Huntsville, ON, October, 1995
Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit, Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, ON, 1982
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Education
Visual Arts Education Specialist, York University, Toronto, ON, 2006
B.Ed. York University, Toronto, ON, 1999
AOCA Ontario College of Art, Toronto, On, 1982
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