The Bell and the Bard are mostly responsible for much of my career as an artist.

I began working with singer/songwriter Steve Bell in January of 2007. I had been widowed and cruised through a few part time jobs to make ends meet. Through the almost twenty years with Steve, I have learned the administrative side of making music. Much to my surprise, I was inspired to renew my art by seriously painting again, beginning with photos he had taken of people from India and Ethiopia on a trip with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. This resulted in about 10 paintings from his photos.

Steve met Malcolm Guite at a 2011 C. S. Lewis retreat in Cambridge. Both admired the other’s work, and a friendship flourished. Steve and Malcolm collaborated on new music, peppering Steve’s albums with gorgeous poetry to complement the melodies. For myself, I was entranced by Malcolm’s face. I asked permission from photographer Lancia E. Smith to use her photography in my portraits of Malcolm. This was a rare opportunity in her words, to “see what I see through someone else’s eye and heart and skill.”

The result of several years work was another 10 portraits of Malcolm Guite, some from photos that he took himself, or by friends like Steve Bell. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Malcolm reciting poetry in a sailboat) is on the wall of Steve Bell’s office. The Bard, (pictured in this post) was done from a photo by Canadian photographer, Daniel Melville Jones and hangs in my own office at Signpost Music. The name says it all.

Malcolm asked me to collaborate with him on a book featuring his poem about creation called “Seven Whole Days.” I did a painting for each line of the poem, and the finished book is called by the same name. Malcolm’s handwriting of each line is incorporated into each artwork.

So now the Bell and the Bard have come together to create a new album called “The Bell & the Bard,” a collection of their work from 2011 to 2026. It is accompanied by a book called “Keening and Kindling – The Bell, the Bard and the Redemptive Imagination,” written by theologian Brian J. Walsh.

Every collaboration that Malcolm Guite has done over the years will be celebrated in Boston, MA at the one-of-a-kind “Lifting the Veil” retreat on Oct. 23-24, 2026. Gather with Malcolm and some of his best friends and collaborators and let your imagination be kindled for Christ, who is himself, the kindling imagination of God, who brings all things into being. 

For more information about the retreat, see this link.

To purchase the new CD and book, visit stevebell.com.

My own book, “The Alligator Under My Bed” is the story of the journey of my life and art, including stories about Steve Bell related paintings in addition to all of Malcolm Guite’s portraits. It is only available on Kindle or Amazon.