Jesta Bell: J. B. Armstrong Discovered
September 14 - November 30, 2008

JESTA BELL ARMSTONG, Kentucky River, Spring, oil on masonite

Mercer County Weekend Saturday and Sunday, September 20 and 21 Free Admission for all Mercer County residents Sunday, September 21, 2:00 pm Reception and Lecture: Jesta Bell Armstrong

As one of Kentucky's painters the Museum is pleased to present a body of work by Mercer County artist, Jesta Bell Armstrong. Her art career spanned fifty years from the 1930s through the 1970s. Her beloved Harrodsburg and Mercer County were favorite subjects. Born in 1905 in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to Andrew Dixon and Jennette Bell Armstrong, she was a graduate of Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. She received her master’s degree from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee.

In the early 1930s Jesta Bell drove herself around the countryside taking pictures of everything that caught her eye. Some of her best loved landscapes are of the Kentucky River palisades, painted most often in the spring when the red bud trees were in bloom. She also painted local architecture, some of which no longer exist.

Her brother Andrew was also a gifted artist and photographer. The artistic and photographic record left by her and her brother is truly remarkable. Jesta Bell died in 1989 at age 84. Her brother died on the day of her funeral.

Mercer County Weekend