Trevor Bell's pure abstractions were inspired by his fascination of elemental forces. He did not paint evocations of the landscape, more the primal power that created them in the first place. It is this distinction which marks him apart from many of his contemporaries - particularly those who were active in St Ives alongside Bell at the time of our painting. Bell moved to St Ives on the advice of Terry Frost and soon found himself immersed in the group of progressive modernist artists who lived in the small seaside town. His work was championed in particular by Patrick Heron who described Bell as ‘the best non-figurative painter under thirty'. In 1958 Bell held his first major solo exhibition in London at the Waddington Gallery on Cork Street. During the 1960s, he embraced shaped canvases and worked on an ever increasing scale which put him on a collision course with his then dealer. After a retrospective exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in the early 1970s, Bell relocated to Florida to take up a post of Professor of Painting at Florida State University at Tallahassee. While in Florida, he produced some of his most daring and large scale canvases which were charaterised by his use of strong colours. He returned to Cornwall in 1996 and was awarded a solo exhibition at Tate St Ives shortly after his return.