Alison Bell

Alison Bell is a Scottish textile artist who has developed an international reputation as a silk painter and craft teacher and has exhibited widely in the U.K. Her work has taken a new direction since incorporating digital imaging and printing into her practice. She writes:

“Digital technology is allowing and tempting me to go down paths I might otherwise ignore or perhaps not even see. I was being repetitive in my painted silks, needing a new language to try. Having found it, my old language of painting has a different meaning now: I can see its value in my work. Trying the new helps to redefine the old.

Working on the beautiful Isle of Arran in Scotland, Bell is influenced and inspired by her environment.

Her fine art silks communicate this transactional effect; the work conveys her interest in the metaphysical combined with the natural history around her.

The digital language she has recently developed uses layers of colour, image and line to communicate her narrative through the textile medium.

      

These comprise digitally printed and hand painted silk hangings that in some cases are elaborated with appliqué and stitch.