Painter and teacher, full name Norman Martin Bell, born in Great Meols, Cheshire. He was brought up in an artistic atmosphere and went on to train at Liverpool College of Art, 1925–30, Royal College of Art, 1931–3. Taught part-time at King’s School, Chester, 1933–4, then returned to Liverpool College of Art, becoming head of the school of fine art, 1965–8, before retiring. Early influences on Bell’s work were Puvis de Chavannes, the Post-Impressionists and Walter Sickert, but from the late 1950s it became more abstract, Nicolas de Staël’s pictures becoming important to him. Recorded war bomb damage in Liverpool. Bell was long a member of the Liverpool Academy, being its president, 1957–60, and showed with Sandon Studios Society.