Beatrice Forshall

Beatrice was born in France; she spent her early years there and in Catalonia. As a child she raised money for wildlife conservation by making papier-mâché animals, which she sold in local markets. As the elephants, the rhinos, the butterflies and birds, which are a part of so many children’s imaginations, and many others of which we know so little vanish, so Beatrice wished to record them.

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, policymakers 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.

Beatrice spent the last three years writing and illustrating The Book of Vanishing Species, published by Bloomsbury.

"The Book is both a love letter to life on Earth, and an urgent summons to protect what is precious in this world." - Bloomsbury Publishing

Each drawing in this 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.

The Book Of Vanishing Species

A Wildlife Window: Hand-Painted Drypoint Engravings by Beatrice Forshall

And here's a short film to introduce Bea's The Book of Vanishing Species.