"EILEEN BELL was a prolific natural artist who was still applying paint to canvas into her nineties. Her 2003 retrospective at the Chappel Galleries, near Colchester, showed her to be a rich colourist, producing still-lifes with a quirky perspective and sea and beach scenes inspired by the coast of Suffolk where she lived latterly. She was born in Clifton, Bristol, in 1907, elder daughter of John Bowerbank, a bank manager, and his wife Margaret, an amateur cellist. The Bowerbanks were hostile to Eileen's becoming an artist and so, instead, she studied the piano. It was only after her 1937 marriage to Randall Bell, a consultant surveyor, that she could study art. In 1967 Bell slipped on clay in the potting studio and broke her arm, incapacitating her for a long time. As well as crocheting rugs, she wrote two children's books for Puffin: Tales from the End Cottage (1970) and More Tales from the End Cottage (1972). They recalled Sebastian's childhood in Northamptonshire and the animals where they lived." Author information: Obituary: Eileen Bell Artist, children's writer and mentor to the young Alan Titchmarsh DAVID BUCKMAN FRIDAY 04 FEBRUARY 2005 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obi...