Viva Lewes Issue #149 February 2019

CRESSIDA BELL
Bell’s personal aesthetic and her artistic heritage.
“I’ve never curated a show before, so it’s all
new to me. I’m trying to look for works of art
where you can tell that the artist has superimposed
colours on the painting, rather than
actually seeing them.”
Bell wishes that people would try wearing more
colour, “because it’s so life enhancing. I have a
very bright-coloured kitchen made up of turquoise,
cream, blue and red. It’s incredibly cosy
and friendly: people love it. But it’s unusual, it’s
not the sort of colour most people paint their
kitchens. Colour is very instinctual. When I
have a room to paint, it immediately comes to
me, I don’t spend ages agonising.”
The cover Cressida designed for us has an
intriguing artistic provenance, of a satisfyingly
physical and inky nature. When making her
textiles, she uses a bit of paper to protect the
table from being printed on at the end of the
fabric. “What happens is, you get this build
up of different designs being printed on each
other, which ends up being nicer than the
fabrics. I’ve used one of those, so it’s a slightly
random thing.”
The cover is an amalgamation of two prints:
Tropical Spot and Beach, resulting in a somewhat
hypnotic palimpsest of patterns. Bell has
recoloured some elements, and also added
some colour to create a bespoke image for Viva
Lewes: we’re thrilled with how her combination
of happenstance layers and adroit
editing has turned out. “I’ve
always longed to use one
of these things because
they’re fun. I can’t throw
them away, I’ve got
drawers full of them.”
Joe Fuller
cressidabell.com
In Colour is at Charleston
from 6th March-26th August
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