Bea Forshall

Bea Forshall

Beatrice Forshall was born in France; she spent her early years there and in Catalonia. She studied illustration at Falmouth College of Art, specialising in dry-point engraving in the last year of her degree. She has since exhibited regularly throughout the UK.

From 2017 to 2019 Beatrice was artist-in-residence with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI), a collaboration between researchers, policy makers and practitioners from the University of Cambridge and leading biodiversity conservation organisations. Her work is part of the permanent collection in CCI's home, the David Attenborough Building.

To date she has worked with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, BirdLife International and Fauna & Flora International.

Her book, The Book of Vanishing Species was published by Bloomsbury in October 2022. Each drawing in the book was printed using an intaglio press. The process is long: first drawing, then engraving, printing and colouring by hand. The material on which Beatrice engraves is fragile, so print runs are short, rarely more than twenty-five, and each final image varies slightly in colour and sometimes composition from the rest of the series, making it unique.

For more information about Beatrice's work visit her website

Instagram @ beaforshall

The Book of Vanishing Species featured in the Jan/Feb 2023 issue of Resurgence & Ecologist, read Beatrice's introduction to it here.