Bea Green

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Selection of Bea's work
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“Micalet” is an abstract sculpture, jointly inspired by Modigliani paintings and vistas in remote rural areas of La Drôme, France. I had fun making this with a stoneware clay and glazing its interior with a “Loess” sedimentary clay that I’d found in the South of France.
My Ozone Warrior sculpture marks the start of my investigations into atmospheric pollution by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), when the hole in the Ozone layer was first discovered. Created using white stoneware clay, underglaze colours and oxides. Exhibited in New Zealand.
“Seeds of Pollution” is part of a series that expressed my concerns about the increasing impacts of air pollution on growing plants. Created in white stoneware clay with oxides, this sculpture is at the Tajimi museum Mino, Japan.
“The Bridge” is part of the series “Countryside Walks?”. Commissioned as a gift, the exterior of this personalised sculpture emulates the recipient’s local countryside; the interior contains symbols of his interests, his achievements and key events in his life. The feet are moulded from his relatives. Constructed in stoneware clay and decorated with coloured engobes, melted glass and kiln-fired local earth samples.
“Girl on a Swing” is part of a series of unique bronze sculptures about children's inventive games, prior to the advent of TVs and more recent visually-addictive technology. The rope was often fixed to a lamp-post around which they would swing. Solid bronze with patination.
“Belgian Grondwitloof cultivation – a dying craft” is a 2m x 3m low-relief mural that was commissioned to illustrate and commemorate the labour-intensive, traditional method of growing chicory in fields, and then stacking the unearthed roots in heated, underground clamps, often during vile winter weather, to force production of tightly furled shoots or hearts. This ground-based chicory (Grondwitloof) was cultivated mainly in the triangle of land between Brussels, Mechelen and Leuven. It has been largely replaced by cheaper-to-produce but inferior-tasting hydroponic chicory but is still sought after and regarded as “white gold”. Created in stoneware clay with coloured engobes and oxides.
Inspired by the Cornish coastline, “The Power and the Glory in Nature: Crooklets” is one of a series I’m currently working on that portrays the elegance and power of gannets as they dive for fish, swiftly carving their way into the depths of an enormous ocean.

Artist’s Statement

My lifelong love of nature and appreciation of its rhythms and seasonal cycles inspires my environmental sculptures, in particular both the Warrior and Guardian series. These highlight our obligation to protect our wonderful environment, maintaining its fragile and intricate balance for future
generations.

Prior to art college, clay had always intrigued me; its geological origins, flexibility and technical challenges. While at Bath Academy, I developed a range of coloured, stoneware Engobes, which eliminate the troublesome application and firing of glazes and form a durable matt finish suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

These Engobes feature extensively in my commissioned 2m x 3m mural commemorating the Belgian farmers’ dying craft of cultivating ground-forced chicory hearts (Grondwitloof) in
all weathers. This traditional “white gold” outrivals hydroponic replacements.

My “Countryside Walks?” sculptures encourage awareness of one’s surroundings while walking; increasingly, people walk enveloped in virtual worlds. As commissions, they also tell
stories about those who receive them; perhaps their character, favourite environments/landscapes, events or landmarks in their journey through life. These personal portrayals often evoke humour, for example copies of relatives’ feet!
I began creating Bronze figures in Ireland, enjoying the freedom of sculpting in wax and the patination of the metal. I’d love to do more of this work.

I’m currently working on a series of ceramic sculptures entitled “The Power and the Glory in Nature”, inspired by the beauty of Cornish coast gannets but also the hardships they
endure. My latest work highlights the devastating impact of shore-littering plastics and fishing-net debris on gannet colonies.


I studied in Belfast College of Art, Bath Academy of Art and in Cardiff University. My  sculptures have been exhibited in New Zealand, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, N.
Ireland, Eire, England and Japan. They can be found in many private and public collections, including the Mino Ceramic Art Museum, Tajimi, Japan. I have also had work published in
magazines, including Ceramic Review and in Anne Lightwood's book on Paperclay.
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