Cecil Crosley “Spike” Bell was born in Seattle, Washington on July 15, 1906. In 1925 he was hired at Tacoma Engraving and, in 1928, studied printmaking at the Chicago Art Institute in the fall semester. After marrying Agatha Lewis in 1929 the newlyweds moved to New York City in 1930, where Bell studied at the Art Students’ League with John Sloan, Charles Locke, Will Barnet, and Harry Wickey.

In 1931 Bell began working as a commercial artist at Fox Films, while continuing to study at the Art Students’ League and privately with John Sloan. He continued as a freelance illustrator in the 1930s and sold a painting to the Whitney Museum in 1936. Bell continued his education, studying lithography with Harry Sternberg and printmaking with Will Barnet at the Art Students’ League. In 1942 he moved to Staten Island, New York.  Bell exhibited in New York in the 1940s and in the 1950s he traveled to Europe.

Bell’s work focused primarily on American city scenes and genres, often portraying ordinary people in everyday situations illuminated in rich hues. Figurative compositions and landscapes in rural Vermont and beachside New Jersey also frequented his oeuvre.

From 1935 to his retirement in 1968, Bell continued to work as a freelance illustrator for the Donut Corporation. He suffered serious medical problems 1956 but recovered and spent six weeks in 1961 in Mexico, where he did his only work executed outside the U.S.

Bell exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Tacoma Art Museum, Washington. His work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; and the Barry Art Museum, Norfolk, Virginia.

Cecil Bell died in Rutland, Vermont on July 26, 1970.