Artists Open Houses: Designer Cressida Bell on her work, Charleston and famous family

IN MANY ways it was inevitable that Cressida Bell would become an accomplished artist.

Growing up in Leeds and then Beddingham near Lewes, she frequently visited her grandparents at Charleston, the now famous farmhouse adorned with her grandmother Vanessa Bell’s distinctive paintings.

Cressida’s surrogate grandfather, Duncan Grant – “an adorable person” in Cressida’s words – remains one of the most celebrated British artists.

Then there is her father, Quentin Bell, an acclaimed art academic, and mother, Anne Olivier Bell, the president of Charleston. That’s before mentioning Virginia Woolf, the legendary modernist writer who tragically took her life in Sussex and whose work and life have been meticulously document by both of Cressida’s parents in various books.

It’s one hell of a family reputation to live up to, but since studying fashion and textiles at Central Saint Martins in London in the 1980s Cressida has carved out her own niche in the design world. Her scope is impressively wide, moving from interior design to murals, clothes and even cakes. “Anything that doesn’t move, I’ll paint it,” she laughs. “If you create patterns they can go on anything. Right now I’m painting a lamp, for instance.” Her display at Artists Open Houses mostly entails scarves, shawls and cushions.

While Cressida acknowledges the influence of her artistic ancestors – mostly in her use of colour, one of her “strongest assets” – she also points out the differences between her work and that of her grandmother. “The art at Charleston is much more painterly than mine,” she says. “I’m much more controlled and neat and precise.” Despite her carefully considered approach, Cressida borrows Paul Klee’s quip that drawing is “taking a line for a walk” to describe how her creations start.

One can only imagine how bizarre it must be to see the site of treasured childhood memories become a tourist attraction. That is exactly what has happened to Charleston, which hosts regular tours for the public as well as two annual festivals. “Sometimes I’ll visit and there will be lots of people walking around the rooms,” says Cressida. “That feels deeply weird, almost like ‘what are all these people doing in my house?’ The other thing that is really strange to me is going along the A27 and suddenly seeing a road marking telling you to take a right turn up the driveway to Charleston. That always gets me.”

Vanessa died when Cressida was just one. “She know me but I didn’t know her, sadly,” says the artist. Her grandfather, Clive Bell, died when she was four, but Cressida became very close to another partner of Vanessa’s – Duncan Grant. She says Grant inspired her “more as a human being” than an artist. “He lived until I was 19, so he kind of become my grandfather.”

Virginia Woolf, the author of seminal modernist novels To The Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway among others, committed suicide long before Cressida was born, but she was a constant presence in her household growing up. Cressida’s parents have written biographies and published diaries on the writer, and Cressida jokes that “my mother probably became the world expert” on all things Virginia. Anne made index cards for every day of Virginia’s life.

“There was a point where it all became too much,” says Cressida. “My brother, instead of writing to my parents by their name, would write ‘to the wonderful world of Woolf.

“We were completely immersed in it. My poor sister is called Virginia, so my parents had to start calling the other Virginia Mrs Woolf. Both my parents were full-time researchers of her life, so it did get a bit much sometimes. But it eased off slightly once my mother had finished her five versions of diaries.”

Surprisingly, Cressida adds that her mother admits to not having read much of Woolf’s actual work. Just as her family found great success from following their artistic vision to its zenith, Cressida says she pays no attention to fashions and fads and just keeps “doing what I do best.” At any rate, she adds, the design world operates in cycles.

“If you keep doing something for long enough it becomes fashionable again,” she says. “I’ve seen people try and hit moving targets – it’s better to stick to your strengths and not worry about this year’s colour. Although I think this year it’s purple.”

Cressida Bell’s work is exhibited at Jehane’s Open House, 89 Waldegrave Road, Brighton.