Artist mum donates book to BVC library

Parent and artist Beth Lievesley dropped into Bassingbourn Village College with a late Christmas present for the Library – a copy of the Cambridge Art Book.

The book is jam-packed full of art showing Cambridge through the eyes of its artists and features one of Beth’s intricate collages of Trinity College.

As a collage artist, Beth specialises in creating unique pictures of buildings and landscapes. Before she produces each piece in her Ashwell home studio, Beth spends a period of time researching the subject to discover interesting information that is unique to the image. She then sources a variety of collage materials to use in the artwork that reflects her findings – these can be old maps, dates, stamps, song sheets, historical text & other paper ephemera to make artwork that draws the viewer in and immerses them in both the history and beauty of the image.

Mum to Yr 10 student Archie, Beth said: ”I hope the BVC students enjoy and are inspired by the Cambridge Art Book – it contains a eclectic mix of artwork, showcasing a broad range of contemporary styles of art based on our local city.

“My handcut paper collage is of the Wren Library in Trinity College which was completed in 1695 to the design of Sir Christopher Wren. Among the special collections housed in the building are medieval manuscripts, early editions of Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Newton’s Principa Mathmatica and AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh manuscripts.

“Both Newton and Milne were students at Trinity and my collage contains pages from their work. It also contains quotes from the great poets Tennyson and Byron who also studied at Trinity.”
Beth has always had a love of history and collage art which was amplified when she moved to Cambridge as a student nurse in 1994 and enjoyed living in a city full of beautiful architecture and amazing history.

Throughout her time as a nurse and then becoming a mum to 2 boys Archie and Hamish, Beth has developed her collage art to specialise in buildings and for the past 7 years has had a continual demand for commissions.

Beth particularly enjoys unearthing stories that are really unique to the subject that can evoke a personal connection and enjoys the challenge of finding ways to collage it into the pictures, making it a truly one off piece of artwork.