"I work primarily as a ceramicist, although my work includes illustration and painting too. My porcelain pots are simple and fresh, each containing an individual drawing and character. I observe and sketch things from our everyday lives and put this directly on the white canvas of the porcelain clay. Looking at people, places and happenings, I illustrate a scene onto a pot. This can work on one individual pot or sometimes I will create a series of pots that all relate to one another, thus forming a narrative.
The pots are intended to be whimsical, some are cheeky and some are nostalgic. For me, the humour is in the references; I enjoy recording domestic scenes onto pots, and then putting them back into the domestic environment."
Helen Beard trained at Liverpool Art School followed by Edinburgh College of Art, qualifying with a 1st class honors degree in Ceramics. After leaving Edinburgh, she moved to London where she met studio potter, Edmund de Waal. She then undertook an eighteen-month apprenticeship with him and learnt to throw in Porcelain.
After the apprenticeship she was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship with a grant enabling her to travel to Japan and France to study learning methods in clay.
She was a recipient of the CCDA award in 2005 and is supported by the Crafts Council and Arts Council, England.
Image credits (from left): "Swimmers" , ‘Grandmother with child’, 2007, ‘Birds’, 2007
Helen Beard
Ceramics
Unit 34 Craft Central, 33-35 St. John’s Square, London EC1M 4DS
T: +44 (0)77 403 04148
Contact: Helen Beard
info@helenbeard.com