Bea’s story with art did not begin with BZ Art Studio. It started much earlier, when she was growing up in Gran Canaria, Spain.
From as far back as she can remember, creativity was always part of her life. Drawing, painting, singing, dancing and even comedy all fascinated her. Art, in one form or another, was always there.
There was also an artistic connection within her family. Although Bea never met her grandfather, she grew up hearing stories about him being an artist and taking his work to fairs. Her father, a draughtsman, also played a small but important role in encouraging her creativity. Bea remembers him always carrying a pen and giving her paper to draw on while they waited for food in restaurants. She could happily cover an entire paper tablecloth with drawings.
Even at around five years old, Bea already knew what she wanted to be: an artist.
From Gran Canaria to Madrid – and an unexpected change of direction
That passion eventually took Bea to Madrid to study Fine Arts.
However, during her second year, she became ill with a pancreatic condition and had to return to Gran Canaria. It changed the path she had imagined for herself.
Continuing certain studies would have meant travelling to Tenerife, so instead Bea chose to study fashion design. She never completely stopped painting and continued doing creative and design work, but for a number of years she did not make her living as an artist.
Then came another major change.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, Bea found it increasingly difficult in Spain to find work connected to what she had studied. At 23, doing jobs that had little to do with the career she had trained for, she decided to leave Spain.
Her journey first took her to Ireland, where she met the man who would become her husband. They later moved to Mexico before changing circumstances eventually brought them back to Europe.
A friend from Gran Canaria who was living in England gave them some very specific advice: if they were coming with a family, rather than London, they should try Leeds.
It was 2015.
Bea arrived in Leeds and began again. Since then, the city has become her home.
Rediscovering the artist within
Moving to Leeds did not mean that Bea immediately began a career as an artist.
Her return to art happened gradually.
Years later, a friend encouraged her to take part in an exhibition. Bea gathered some of the work she had, put it into bags and went along to a small exhibition. There she met another artist, Edek, and watching the way he created had an important effect on her.
She saw somebody creating from within – making something that was not simply designed for other people, but came from something inside himself.
It triggered a very clear thought:
This is what I’m supposed to be doing.
From there, Bea began connecting more and more with other artists and with Leeds’ creative community. Slowly, something that had always been part of her began to take a central place in her life again.
During our conversation, Bea says something particularly meaningful: she feels that she became an artist again in Leeds.
For her, Leeds has been a place where she has been able to become herself again. She speaks warmly about a city that supports communities and artists, and about an environment filled with music, concerts, dance, singing, painting and street art.
Art, motherhood and rediscovering yourself
One of the most personal moments in our conversation comes when Bea talks about motherhood and her identity as an artist.
When she became a mother, she felt that the artist she had once been had somehow disappeared.
That is why her work today is not simply about producing a finished piece. An important part of art for Bea is the process: rediscovering who she was, understanding what happened to that part of herself when she became a mother, and exploring who she is now.
Creating has become a way of getting to know herself again.
Perhaps that is why, when Bea talks about what she enjoys most about her work, she does not choose the finished painting or the moment when other people see it.
She chooses the process.
Standing in front of something blank. Making mistakes. Changing things. Coming back to them. Learning. And discovering something about yourself along the way.
More than painting pictures
Today, Bea’s creative work takes many different forms.
She creates murals for homes and businesses, produces commissioned canvases, takes part in artistic projects and runs workshops. She also experiments with different techniques and materials, including wood, stone, plaster and materials that other people no longer want.
Reusing materials has become part of the way she works. For some projects, for example, she uses reclaimed paint through initiatives in Leeds that give materials a second life rather than allowing them to go to waste.
But another particularly important part of Bea’s work today is community.
For Bea, art is not only something to look at. It can also be a way of bringing people together.
That idea is at the heart of Doodle Chat, a community project that Bea had been developing for several years and which later became a CIC.
The idea is deliberately simple: a table, creative materials and a place where people can be together. You can draw and talk, draw without talking, or simply be there.
What matters is creating a safe space where people can feel welcome and free from judgement.
During the interview, Bea talks about the isolation some people can experience and the importance of creating places where they can express themselves and connect with others. She also acknowledges that helping to create those spaces has helped her personally too.
A little piece of Spain in her art
Although much of Bea’s artistic journey has developed in Leeds, Spain continues to live within her work.
And she describes that influence in a very distinctive way.
When we ask where her Spanish identity appears in her paintings, she talks about the “noise” and a certain sense of chaos or disorder within them.
Bright colours. Colours that might not appear to belong together, but somehow end up working side by side.
For Bea, there is something very Spanish about that.
There are also more recognisable references: flamenco, women dancing, the sea, nature and mountains. The sea has a particularly strong meaning for her because she grew up beside it.
She also remembers travelling with her father as a child and sitting down to sketch churches and other buildings in the places they visited. Some of those drawings were given to restaurants they had visited and, according to Bea, at least one of them may still be there today.
It is this side of Spain – what she describes as the romantic Spain – that continues to find its way into her sketches, memories and imagination.
“Do it anyway”
Towards the end of our conversation, we ask Bea what she would say to somebody who wants to start something creative but does not yet have the confidence.
Her answer captures not only her approach to creativity, but much of her own story:
Do it anyway.
It might be frightening. It might be difficult. Things might not turn out as you expected. But you can do one small thing today and another tomorrow.
You do not always need to focus on the final result. Focus on the first step.
For Bea, what matters is taking action and beginning, even when everything is not yet perfect.
Her own story has been full of beginnings, interruptions and new beginnings: Gran Canaria, Madrid, Ireland, Mexico and Leeds; studying art, moving away from it and ultimately finding her way back.
Perhaps that is one of the most powerful ideas to come from our conversation with Bea:
Sometimes finding your path does not mean following a straight line. Sometimes it means returning, step by step, to something that has always been part of you.
Watch our conversation with Bea
Discover BZ Art Studio
Discover more of Bea’s work and BZ Art Studio:
Website: https://bzartstudio.com/en/home-english/
Email: [email protected]
Typical Spanish – Bringing a little piece of Spain to the UK