Peter Bell is a Wellington-based abstract painter.
He plays with spatial layout and subtle shape repetition to create clean and aesthetically pleasing works. His paintings are beautifully vibrant and reminiscent of silk screen prints with their flat colour and clean edges in a palette of primary or neutral colours.
His March 2022 solo exhibition titled “This way, that way” explored geometric shapes inspired by the positive/negative fan shape triangles from Pacific tapa designs. This ‘motif’ is then interrogated using different colour combinations, scale shifts, repetition, overlapping, transparency and distortion as new shapes which merge together to create rhythms and patterns.
"My work is about trying to present a collection of shapes and colours that are open to different meaning to the viewer. They are not trying to change the world but are an attempt to invite consideration and reflection for a moment."
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"In early March 2022 I held a solo show of my paintings called ‘This way, that way’ at Thistle Hall Gallery in Cuba Street, Wellington.
This exhibition was the culmination of several years' work which originated with the exploration of a simple fan shape icon I have always admired in Tapa cloth designs.
I have used this simple shape as a starting point to investigate and explore visual possibilities in a formalist way.
Small series of works and ideas evolved naturally with a focus on things such as repetition, overlapping, transparency, positive and negative relationships, order and disruption and scale shift."
