Behind the Art

The Artist
Leslie Bell’s first animation, Painted Moon, created with the help of Quickdraw Animation Society (QAS) and the National Film Board of Canada, snagged her international attention at the 2010 Worldwide Short Film Festival. She is a board member of QAS and teaches extended studies at the Alberta College of Art + Design.

The Art
Chromafilm is created using a paint-film technique. Bell uses acrylics, watercolours and a jug of water to paint on glass backlit by a light table. A digital camera captures stop-motion images of that work. Those images are computer-edited and layered to create a five-minute animation set to dreamy music.

The Inspiration
“I am introducing the idea of an emotive arc into an abstract film. It is called Chromafilm because it is literally based on going through the colours to create mood, a mental state or an out-of-body-thinking experience,” Bell says. “It starts with dreamy blue and speeds up through green, and then on to a fiery red and orange ball and so on. I hope that the characteristics of the paint’s movements come out in the colour. All of my work comes out of the abstraction that develops through the act of pure art-making. The process is the motivation.”

Watch Bell’s animation at lesliebell.ca. For more animation, Quickdraw’s GIRAF Independent Animation Festival takes place November 3 to 7.