Julie Bell


Julie Bell is an American fine artist, illustrator, photographer and bodybuilder. She is a fantasy artist and a wildlife painter. She is one of the main representatives of the heroic fantasy and fantastic realism genres. Bell has won numerous Chesley Awards and was the designer of the Dragons of Destiny series. She also has won numerous first place awards in the Art Renewal Center's International Salon and has been named as a Living Master. Julie Bell married and later divorced scientist and writer Donald E. Palumbo. During this marriage she gave birth to two sons, Anthony and David Palumbo, who subsequently also became professional artists. Later, she married Boris Vallejo.

Early life

Julie Bell was born 1958 in Beaumont, Texas. She attended six schools studying painting and drawing. Her idols in the world of painting were Leonardo DaVinci, Alphonse Mucha and N. C. Wyeth. In her youth she was fond of bodybuilding. She took part in various competitions and received national recognition, which later influenced her to portray beautiful and muscular women. She applies the same discipline and intensity to her art career. Her knowledge of anatomy has allowed her to imbue her figures of humans and animals with grace and strength. At the heart of her work is a deep curiosity, honor, and respect for the world of emotions. In 1978, Julie Bell married a scientist and writer Donald E. Palumbo. During this marriage she gave birth to two sons, Anthony and David Palumbo, who subsequently also became professional artists. The artist's life was forever changed when, in 1989, she met Boris Vallejo, who later she married. Currently they occasionally both collaborate on projects, produce paintings for the highly anticipated Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell Fantasy Calendar published by Workman.

Career

Julie has also turned her attention to painting wildlife, earning a place among the top wildlife and western painters, winning awards and showing her work in exhibits throughout the US and Europe. In the 2014 Art Renewal Center's International Salon, she won seven awards and two purchase awards, including 1st and 3rd in the Animal Category and 1st place in the Imaginative Realism Category.  In November 2015, she was awarded the Mountain Oyster Club's Denise McCalla Memorial Top Choice Award. She was named a Living Master by the Art Renewal Center and was recently invited to show her equine paintings at the American Academy of Equine Arts Invitational Salon in conjunction with the Kentucky Derby.
“When I’m painting animals with all their beauty and wild nature, I experience the kind of at-one-with-the-universe feeling described by people who meditate.  It’s both soothing and exciting, the way nature itself is.  I know without a doubt that this is what I was meant to do.”
Julie has made a large contribution to the Fantasy and Science Fiction genre and her artwork has appeared on hundreds of book covers, comic books, trading cards, and various collectibles.  Her work can be seen worldwide in major advertising campaigns, album covers, posters, and collectibles of all kinds.
Julie shares her life and her studio in Pennsylvania with her husband, Boris Vallejo.
Julie Bell has painted the cover illustrations of more than 100 fantasy and science fiction books and magazines since 1990, including more than 90 in the 20 years to 2009. In the early 1990s, she illustrated painted covers for video games as well as best-selling trading cards for the superheroes of Marvel and DC. A cover art image from the Sega Game Gear video game ' would depict the semi-barbaric world that the game took place in; thus being entitled Savage Land by Bell herself. She designed the award-winning Dragons of Destiny sculpture series, Mistress of the Dragon's Realm dagger series, as well as the Temptation Rides sculpture series produced by The Franklin Mint.
She designed the cover art for Meat Loaf's albums ' and its first single "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", the album Hang Cool Teddy Bear, and the album "Crossroads".
Julie sometimes collaborates on art with her husband, Boris Vallejo, and they have done many paintings for worldwide advertising campaigns such as Nike, Inc., Coca-Cola and Toyota.
In 2007, Bell and Vallejo illustrated the poster for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters.
A yearly calendar of 13 paintings by Bell and Vallejo is produced by Workman Publishing.
Her personal fine art work would best be defined in the realms of contemporary imaginative realism, equine, and wildlife art.

Style

"I had just started my career as an illustrator and I told them that "I want to be a Heavy Metal-ballerina-cowgirl".  I think the spirit of these different parts of myself has always been at the core of my work.  I just love that combination of gracefulness and badass, completely in tune with nature.  So I don't see myself moving away from fantasy because the fantasy world is so open and allows for experiment."

Honors