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 | Jac Bell-Walsh, Artist
Contemporary New Zealand paintings were an inspiration to Jacqueline Bell-Walsh at a very young age. Whilst still at primary school in the 1960’s, she was exposed to the active art scene in Auckland because of her mother’s employment at the Auckland City Art Gallery at the time. What she saw and the adults she met, made lasting impressions on her life and has influenced her future directions.
Although she had some problems mixing at school, she was fortunate to find an ally in her art teacher, Mr Owen Lee, who also shaped her adulthood and artistic path. She was a commercial artist for a number of years, specialising in fashion illustration and attended training, allied with this occupation. Although she moved into other artistic pursuits over her growing adulthood, the creation of making paintings did not occur until the early 1990’s, after a period of significant changes in her personal life.
Her first experience of group exhibitions and the other artists she met in the late 1990’s was a pivotal motivator in extending her education in art. She undertook extramural study in Art History and also enrolled in various practical art making courses.
She is currently in her final year of a tertiary course pertaining to Contemporary Art, which she was awarded a scholarship to attend. Through this exposure, her work has changed and matured. She has developed from being a realistic figurative painter to making works where she explores the qualities of the materials she uses, which vary in nature from paint to industrial or domestic materials.
She has been featured in various articles from local and regional newspapers, to nationally distributed magazines. She is often invited to give talks to various interested groups.
LISTED IN THE LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTRE, TE AKA MATUA, AT TE PAPA TONGAREWA MUSEUM (National Museum of New Zealand). The Aka Matua holds individual files on New Zealand and international artists.
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