Julie Bell

“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 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.

In 2007, Bell and Vallejo illustrated the poster for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters.

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 Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe 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.

Julie Bell (born October 21, 1958) 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.

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.