Cressida Bell

Places for my April Lampshade Painting Masterclass are going fast so please be sure to book early to avoid disappointment !

Printing 'Woman & Mandolin' cushions for The Hackney Draper. Once printed they are painted by hand, so no two are ever the same !

My father made me this beautiful card as a Christmas present when I was a teenager. He ingeniously created four images in one by using folded paper and skilfully matching up the images. Flick through the images to see how it works.

In Colour : 6 March – 26 August 2019
"Curated by London-based textile designer, Cressida Bell, granddaughter of artist Vanessa Bell, the exhibition will feature a broad-ranging and highly personal selection of works that reflect Cressida Bell’s personal aesthetic as well as her artistic heritage.
Bell and Grant were two of the first abstract painters in Britain, and, even when they were creating figurative and representational work, the abstract qualities of colour remained a... dominant element.
Drawing on loans from private and public collections, the show will feature works by some of the greatest painters of the last century including; Eileen Agar, Robert Bevan, Francis Cadell, Patrick Caulfield, Robert Dukes, Mary Fedden, Mark Gertler, Patrick Heron, John Hoyland, Stanislawa de Karlowska, Paul Nash, Glyn Warren Philpot and Sean Scully, as well as the Bloomsbury artists; Bell, Grant and Roger Fry.
Virginia Woolf called her sister Vanessa Bell “a poet whose medium was colour.” The Bloomsbury group’s modernist treatment of colour broke with accepted artistic conventions of the day. The freedom of abstraction allowed Bell and Grant to play with colour and shape in new ways; their paintings typical of the 20th century move towards colour dominating composition. This abstract idiom provides a new context for examining the painting of the Bloomsbury group, as radical painters who saw colour as the most vital component of an image.
Cressida Bell says: ‘My personal sense of colour has inevitably been influenced by being brought up in a Bloomsbury environment. The house at Charleston is a joyous celebration of colour, using a palette that manages to be both vibrant and subtle. My selection of works for this show attempt to reflect this aesthetic. I have chosen works where the most fundamental factor in the composition is colour and where a scheme of colours is imposed on the painting, rather than occurring naturally in the subject.’"
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It’s six months since my mother died, and last night we held a memorial for her at The British Library. It was lovely; so many delightful accounts of her life from old friends, and a wonderful reading from Virginia Woolf’s diaries by Eileen Atkins. Thanks to all who came - I don’t think I have ever kissed that many people in one night before !

A Z-shaped rug design which I had made up for Zoo Studios ( a recording studio) in Soho many years back. I did all their interior decoration and it was pretty wild !

The designs I did for the British Airways i360 on Brighton seafront have now been made up and are on sale in the gift shop. Lovely!

A drawing I did some years ago to try to persuade John Lewis to sell my wares. ( It didn't work ! )

New Year, new fringes. Back to the ritual of fringing scarves in front of the TV. A new batch of 'Eclipse' scarves - one of my favourites.

Spend the day at Cressida Bell's East London studio creating your own original lampshade inspired by Cressida's prints and the art of Bloomsbury
Working with Cressida’s help you will develop your understanding of pattern & colour, learning how to use stencils and templates to create an original lampshade for your home.
You’ll be provided with one 14” diameter lampshade, for use on a table or hanging lamp. Specialist translucent dyes will be provided, along with opaque emulsio...n and specialist gold powder paint. Books, templates and other source material will be provided but it will help if you come with some idea of what you would like your shade to look like. Feel free to bring your own sources of inspiration – which could include postcards, fabrics, magazine articles etc.
For those less confident there will be the opportunity to paint one of Cressida’s pre-printed lampshades in a colour way of your choice. (£25 supplement)
The day will start with a workshop introduction at 10.30am when with coffee, tea and pastries
You’ll then spend the morning working on a design, drawing it out then transferring it onto the shade in pencil. You’ll also paint the base colour onto your shade so that it can dry over lunch.
A Middle Eastern style buffet lunch will be provided at around 1pm including delicious produce from the local Turkish grocers and specialist bakers. Wine, water and soft drinks will accompany the meal.
During the afternoon you will be learning more about mixing dyes and paints and will be painting the shades.
Paint brushes, paper, pencils, rubbers etc will all be provided but please bring an apron !
Tea will be served during the afternoon and we hope to finish by around 5pm, though this is flexible and will depend on how long each specific shade takes.
A range of Cressida’s work will be on sale including scarves, ties, cushions & cards.
Price: £140 per person inclusive
Only 12 places available
For enquiries please email cb@cressidabell.com
*information pack will be sent to you including a map with transport links
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A Happy New Year to all ! Xxx

I love these three plates by my father - so charming and funny. They hang in my bedroom and are a cheery sight on a dingy morning. ( There are two more in the set which my brother has.)

Strange to see this photo of me at 25! It's in a book called 'Eighties in the Shade' about '80's girls', which seemingly I was. What a choochy-face! Photo by Arabella McNair-Wilson in a shoot inspired by Isadora Duncan (of course!)

Paint splatters on my print table. We put a clean calico cover on today, post Xmas rush ( I think) !

Just finished the last orders for these oak leaf lamps. I've painted rather a lot of these since they were featured on the Daily Telegraph Xmas gift guide. Practice makes perfect! Thank you Beata Heuman!

Loving this tights/jumper combo!