“The subject of my work came long before I was a printmaker,” Beatrice Forshall reflects from the gallery floor before the launch of her new exhibition at The Biscuit Factory. “That has been there since I was tiny.” She spent her early childhood in south-west France and Catalonia, growing up in places that still felt wild and untamed. Animals were everywhere: in the woods, in the fields, in the stories she invented. She formed an ‘Animal Club’ with her friends, carefully crafting papier-mâché sculptures of rhinos, elephants, and birds, selling them at local markets to raise money for the French WWF. Even as a young child, she felt a compelling responsibility to stand up for the animals the world was failing to hear. “I have always wanted to speak for them,” she says, “because they cannot speak for themselves.”

At Falmouth College of Art that early instinct met its medium. A technician introduced her to drypoint engraving, the slow, careful incising of metal plates mirroring the patience she had honed making papier-mâché creatures. In engraving, she discovered a process that suited her desire to look closely and work carefully, marking the beginning of a visual language she would continue to develop throughout her career.

In 2017, she became artist in residence at the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. The Attenborough Building, alive with nine biodiversity organisations, a vertical garden, and a shared conservation mission, introduced her to research from across the globe. “It was incredibly energising and inspiring to be surrounded by so many people who devote their careers to the protection of a particular species or habitat,” she recalls. She spoke daily with researchers who had spent years studying a single frog, or tracking a population of endangered birds across continents. Their devotion was contagious. “Because I was able to speak to people who have either seen these species or spent their careers studying them, that was when I decided to write ‘The Book of Vanishing Species’.”

The book, published in 2022, brings to light the stories of rare and threatened animals and plants, exploring the pressures they face and pairing accessible summaries with her own stunning illustrations. The book is both her love letter to the natural world and an urgent call to protect what is precious before it disappears forever.

Forshall speaks openly about the emotional weight of conservation work. “It is very easy to feel that sense of despair about the environment and I definitely feel it a lot,” she admits. “But I do have hope. The way that I deal with this eco-anxiety and sadness is by doing. It is the only way.” She believes deeply in the power of individual action, not as a substitute for large scale change but as a force that compounds. “Every day, each one of us makes an impact on the world. With every choice we make, whether it is what we buy or how we travel, all these things add up. Collectively, those choices have a big impact.” The smallest action matters. “It does not matter how insignificant the impact seems. It will be having an effect on another species, on the air, on the soil, on the water.” She has seen again and again that “if you allow nature to recover, it does. And it does so remarkably quickly.”

Recently her attention has turned toward microplastics and the hidden dangers of synthetic fabrics. “Every time we put a wash on of synthetic clothing, up to seven hundred thousand fibres are shed,” she notes. These microscopic threads seep through water and soil, into plants and worms and larger animals, travelling through the food chain until they reach us. Research links the toxic chemicals they release to infertility, cell damage, and cardiovascular disease. What frightens her most is their effect on plants and their ability to photosynthesise. “We cannot do anything without plants,” she says. But she emphasises there is a way forward. “It feels like an easy solution. We can make clothes out of other things. Let us use plastic for the stuff we really need it for, like hospitals and engineering, but we don't need to chop up bread on it and we do not need to clothe ourselves in it.” Her next project will follow this thread.

Despite the global concerns of her work, her creative life unfolds in a pocket of quiet. She spends long stretches of the year in a small valley studio in Devon. The studio is a tiny shed where she engraves large metal plates by hand. “I wake up quite early and what I love about the studio is that you can really feel the elements,” she says. Rain dances across the tin roof, wind rocks the walls, owls hoot from the surrounding woodland. During her book writing process, she developed a habit of printing late into the night. Printing became a physical dialogue with the weather and darkness. “I often end up printing until four in the morning,” she laughs. “Then I will have fried eggs and wine, go to sleep and do the whole thing again. But I love it. There's a peace that comes with the night time.”

Each print she makes is coloured by hand, making them one-of-a-kind. The material she engraves on is fragile, so her editions rarely exceed twenty five. A percent of every sale goes directly to frontline conservation projects. For her, the equation is simple. “You cannot save something or protect something if you do not love it,” she says. Her work aims to make people feel something, even if it is only a small shift. “I hope my work changes people’s attitudes or feelings towards endangered species.”

Forshall’s prints are not only intimate portraits of animals and plants at risk of extinction, but invitations of hope. They ask the viewer to look closely, to pay attention, and to take courage in the idea that nature can recover and that even our smallest choices can help.

Beatrice Forshall's exhibition of exquisite hand-coloured prints is open now until 28th February. 'The Book of Vanishing Species' is available to purchase from our on-site bookshop, The Book Room, and her artwork is available to browse and buy online and in gallery.