Michael Parsons interviews artist Richard Bell on the occasion of Bell’s recent exhibition of paintings at The Mercus Barn, Mercus-Garrabet, France.

Bell comments: “The embodiment of colour into a material organisation is primary. It would follow that what you can say, know and understand about that order (the intelligible nature of the work) is secondary in this process. So I believe that, in the context of these paintings, the sensory is primary and the intelligible is secondary. I would want to invite people to make a quiet response – which is about thoughtfulness and openness. I do not see this exhibition as a lesson in colour or scientific knowledge… The physical transmission of the idea to arrive at the painted surface is one of a number of articulations to achieve the changed aesthetic disposition. The embodiment of this performance is one outcome. Another, perhaps just as interesting a level of performance, is the articulation of the painting in the minds of people who then see, respond to and remember the work. In this way abstract painting becomes a living activity; the works are re-performed in a spatial-temporal context.”