"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.
Exhibitions:
‘Scissors, Paper, Stone’ at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh.
Helen was one of ten selected craft makers commissioned to create new work with an Edinburgh theme for this exhibition. Until 19th January 2008
‘Christmas Cracker’ at the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield early 9th November – 6th January 2008
Craft Central Open Studio, 22-25th November 207
COLLECT at the V&A Museum represented by Joanna Bird Pottery 25-29th January 2008
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
Meet Helen Beard and see her work !
Helen Beard will be among the 80 designers at Craft Central's Made in Clerkenwell Open Studios, 20-23 May 2010.