As a young boy, Bellows attended Saturday film matinees at the Home Theater[1] and became enamored with cinema, an interest that continued throughout his life and was influential to his art.
He recognized his son's natural inclination towards art and taught him what he knew from his own training and experience.
Following high school, Bellows studied art history at the local university for two years and experimented with various artistic styles and mediums.
During this time, he continued to play keyboards with bands, including performers Sonny and Cher during a Midwest tour.
Making a decision to focus solely on developing his artistic talent, Bellows sought out patrons in the tradition of the old masters for financial support.
In 1970, Bellows resided briefly in Connecticut and then moved to Berkeley, California, but soon settled back in Omaha, where he lived for the remainder of his life.
Bellows’ early works were included in Joslyn Art Museum’s 1970 Midwest Biennial Show as well as other exhibitions around Omaha.
In 1972, his work was halted due to pain caused by a ganglion cyst that was wound around the tendons of his left wrist.
Bellows earned a portion of his living during this period through illustration work for publications such as Omni and Rolling Stone, often with a science fiction theme.
One such illustration, which appeared in Rolling Stone in 1975, featured science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, who later wrote in a letter to Bellows, “You gave me a reflected self or identity and I suddenly believed I was real…From the moment I saw your picture, I was changed back to my old, real self…you cured me of my identity-less sickness.
This period led the artist to a more serious focus on the human figure, and a greater interest in the medium of graphite.
This event marked the start of a very prolific period of two decades during which Bellows produced primarily figurative artwork using graphite, charcoal, pastel, egg tempera, acrylic, and oil.
Commenting on his meticulous approach, Bellows stated in 1986, “The image I create on the canvas is the difference between the reality of a photograph and what is actually happening.
This makes for a finely tuned picture, enabling me to capture the subject’s soul.”[5] Bellows was reluctant to talk about the meaning of specific works.
Joseph Campbell, in one of his lectures, said something that struck me—that artists are generally people who have come apart at the seams somewhere along the line, and their work is an attempt to put themselves back together again, or at least keep themselves together.
Following his 1991 divorce, Bellows had continued to reside in his midtown Omaha home along with his two teenage stepdaughters, but by 1994, they had moved out, and he sold the house to a long-time friend.
During the 1990s, Bellows’ works were included in exhibits at: By 2003, Bellows had begun expressing great concern about increasing pain and diminished flexibility in his left wrist and hand, apparently related to the earlier surgery, overuse, and an additional developing condition known as Dupuytren's contracture, common in his mother's family.