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Artist Statement:
About the Artist Don Bell.
Don has specialised in
wildlife work for many years
and has recently started
painting contemporary works
including decorative studies,
landscapes, seascapes,
portraits, buildings and
graphic art.
Wildlife, outdoor, wilderness,
environmental & photographic
lover.
Don paints on commission and
also sells limited edition
litho and digital canvass
prints of all his work.
He donates a substantial
amount of work to worthy
causes for fundraising
campaigns.
His clients include corporate
businesses, executives,
wildlife lovers & hunters.
Don is also a well known
architectural illustrator and
has produced hundreds of
artist impressions of building
projects since 1969.
He is the owner and marketing
director of Gate 7 Consulting
services, specialising in
tourism development as well as
The Gate 7 Collection, a
company which designs,
manufactures and markets
premium quality African themed
arts, crafts and furniture.
Fine art & commercial art
techniques.
Preferred Media
Oils, pencil, acrylic, inks
Exhibitions:
Getaway CT, PE St Georges
Gallery, De Oude Kraal Luxury
guest lodge, Grahamstown
Festival, Queenstown.
...
Further Information
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Artist Exhibitions:
Port Elizabeth
Queenstown
De Oude kraal
Getaway
Grahamstown festival...
Further Information
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Reviews:
Coming Soon!
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Collections:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Don Bell Biography:
| Biographical information for Don Bell can be found below. The artist may choose what information to display. Sometimes the artist chooses not to display personal information to the general public. |
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Age
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60
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| Gender |
Male
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| Status |
Married
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| Children |
2
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| Religion |
Christian |
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| Education |
High School |
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| Hobbies / Interests |
Painting, art, gardening, odd jobs, MS Flight Simulator, photography, architecture, design. |
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| Favorite Artistic Medium |
Painting Other
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| Favorite Arthistory Movement |
not provided
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| Favorite Visual Artist |
not provided
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| Favorite Work of Art |
not provided
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| Biggest Artistic Inspiration |
Wildlife and environment |
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| Why Did You Become An Artist |
I was born to paint and create. |
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| Your Personal Biography |
Approach to Painting & Creating.
This element of my work is determined mainly by the subject matter, surroundings and my mood at the time. I usually create compositions that are simple and focused on critical elements of the subject, with as little surrounding visual interference as possible, except when it enhances the subject’s context or assists to lead the eye to the main item.
As a designer and artist, I am fascinated with almost all manner of subject matter and am constantly experimenting and learning however, my first love, wildlife is constantly embedded in my soul.
I have an insatiable inner quest to produce art and designs which are of the highest quality and suffer from the perfectionist’s dilemma of not knowing when to end a work.
My mission.
My mission is excellence at all costs. I receive enormous satisfaction from mentoring others and donating my time and works to worthy courses which benefit humanity and the environment.
Art Philosophy.
My philosophy is to enjoy every facet of God’s creation and my own gift of creativity, unconditional love for others and to leave a legacy that inspires, brings joy and is a delight to the art owner.
History.
Don was born in 1948 in Queenstown, an inland frontier town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. At the age of six years moved to the coastal city of Port Elizabeth in the same province, where he has lived ever since.
His parents recognized his artistic and creative gifts and talents early in his life and at the age of eight years enrolled him in part time arts and craft courses as well as private tuition with respected artists, van Coillie and Paul Lavender to mention a few.
Don earned pocket money during his school years by drawing pop stars such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Cliff Richards for fellow class mates. He left traditional school in standard eight (Grade 10) to complete schooling at art college. He matriculated (Grade 12) at the Port Elizabeth College of Education’s Art School in 1968. His subjects were English, Afrikaans, History of Art, Drawing, Sculpture, Painting, Geometrical drawing and Fine Art.
Don participated actively in hockey, cricket, tennis, rugby, swimming, surfing and soccer. He played for the College first soccer team and scored the winning goal that enabled his team to win the Port Elizabeth First League Soccer Competition Cup Tie in 1968.
He also played first league hockey.
Surfing was a favourite sport of Don’s between 1969 and 1974 and he regularly traveled to Jeffery’s Bay, the world famous surfing destination just under an hour’s drive along the east coast. Don was fortunate to photograph friends of his becoming the first surfers to ever take on the awesome “Jay Bay Super Tubes” as they are now known.
Don was head hunted during his final year in art school by a firm of architects who viewed his drawings of buildings at an art school exhibition. He was appointed as the in-house building and project commercial illustrator. His first responsibilities were to illustrate various views of the new University of Port Elizabeth project being planned.
He was invited to join the design team working on the university and became involved in detailing interior elements of the project.
During this time Don completed a part time course in photography.
Don met his wife Jackie, when she was eleven years of age. They got married in 1972 during a short two year excursion back to his home town, Queenstown where he ran an architectural design studio.
The couple returned to Port Elizabeth where Jackie gave birth to Jamie, their first child in 1994.
In 1977 he joined a building contracting developer as building designer, illustrator and project manager. Shortly thereafter a building recession hit South Africa as Apartheid (racial segregation) began to take its toll on the economy and South Africa became the world’s enemy. Trade embargoes and global sanctions forced the collapse of many white owned businesses and Don was retrenched when the firm he worked for collapsed under the pressure.
Don was forced to seek another career option and decided to start his own business. In 1978 he and Jackie formed Don Bell Design (Pty) Ltd. a company specializing in architectural design, graphic art, commercial art, marketing & advertising design services.
The business grew in leaps and bounds as Don became well known for producing high quality work and one of a few people in South Africa able to do architectural illustrations assisted in making his company unique.
In 1978 they had Kim their second child and by now had built the business into a well respected architectural and advertising agency with a national client base.
During these thirteen corporate years Don could only find the time to dabble in art due to the pressures of owing and managing his own business.
By 1991 he and Jackie had built their business substantially and they were able to take time off with his family to travel. It was during their first tented wildlife safari into wilderness areas of Botswana’s Okavango Swamps, Savuti Marshlands and Chobe River that inspired Don into deciding to make more time to start painting seriously.
The wild life and environment bug had bitten so to speak, and Don now re-prioritized his life in order to become more involved with nature. As the family traveled, so Don increased the amount of photographic reference material to use for his paintings. He quickly accomplished a good reputation for authentic, realistic wildlife fine art in his spare time and was soon being commissioned to do works for corporate companies and individual buyers.
Don was invited to use his paintings in the annual report of Fidelity Bank and in a national commercial calendar. He has, over the years, completed hundreds of architectural artist impressions, commercial illustrations and artworks in many media forms such as mixed media, oil, pen and wash, felt tip pens, airbrush, water colours and pencil. He has also produced hundreds of computer generated advertising designs, house and building plans.
Things in South Africa became more critical, politically under the Apartheid regime and the economy continued to decline. Don’s business started suffering through the loss of major clients due to their collapse, amalgamation or take-overs.
In 1992 Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island and in 1993 South Africa had its first democratic elections and Apartheid became a thing of the past.
Unfortunately the damage had been done to the SA economy, especially for the small business owners in the poverty stricken and jobless Eastern Cape Region and many had to close down. Don’s was one of these.
In 1998 Don investigated the possibility of once again making a career change. He researched commercial opportunities and decided to open a company specializing in tourism development consulting, as tourism in SA was growing rapidly due to the “Mandela” factor after elections.
He and other partners consolidated their businesses into the Gate 7 Group of businesses ( www.gate7group.co.za ) offering a range of services including:
o Architecture & Interior Design
o Tourism Development.
o Marketing, Advertising & Communications.
o Events & Conferencing.
o Graphic & Web Design.
o Human Resources & Management.
o Business Development.
o Project Management.
Don took up the position of Group Marketing Director and they set about growing the business into a credible consulting group which has expanded to the city of George.
Since 1991 Don has traveled to many Southern African wildlife areas, photographing and producing reference material to paint from, and he & Jackie regularly go to National Parks for breakaways from the business environment.
Don is currently semi retired and is concentrating on all forms of art and painting. He has a studio at home and sells his works to buyers all around the world. He still produces works of art and multi-media presentations for his company which helps it to remain uniquely able to produce high quality project visual marketing presentations.
Social Responsibility Contributions.
Don contributes paintings and artwork to numerous worthy community and environmental programmes to assist with fund raising and promotions.
A few are:
• Cape Leopard Trust Research Program – Cape Mountain Leopard painting and custom designed and manufactured Yellowwood frame.
• CANSA Eastern Cape – Painting of Nelson Mandela and custom designed frame for fund raising towards cancer awareness.
• Audi Terra Nova Award – Painting of Cheetah for fund raising and awareness.
• Toyota 4x4 Club – Painting of the famous Golden Gate National Park Mountain Buttress for fund raising auction.
• Fidelity Bank – Paintings of Elephant and Buck for executive golf day prizes and corporate office.
• St.John’s Church – Painting of the crucifiction and drawing of the church building for fund raising for missions.
• HIV AIDS - Harvest Christian Church Gogo Mission – Don has volunteered to run an arts & crafts therapy programme for HIV AIDS orphans and is in the planning phase.
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