Esme Bell (1919-2018), daughter of inventor, animal fancier and philanthropist Sir Edward Hallstrom, wrote and illustrated a children’s book, The Rainbow Painter, which was published in 1939. Before her marriage she worked as a fashion illustrator, and quite late in life, alongside her husband Wal and other family members, she made fine china figurines of colonial characters at their Bells Fine Art Ceramics studio in Kurrajong Heights. Sometimes they were commissioned to make ceramic figures, for example for the King’s School, PLC Croydon and PLC Pymble. Portraits by Esme Bell were hung in the Archibald prizes of 1961 (Mrs RJ Heffron, wife of the New South Wales premier); 1965 (WH Bell) and 1969 (Leslie Herron). Never Say Never is an account of her family that was self-published in 2007.
