The sculpture was commissioned by Scottish Canals to be installed in the Park, where the communities of Maryhill, Ruchill and Gilshochill meet, and where they are now connected by a spectacular new foot and cycle bridge over the Forth and Clyde Canal. Bella’s steel ‘wireframe’ substructure was manufactured by Scott Associates Sculpture and Design in Maryhill, and over the winter months since October 2023, Nichol Wheatley and artists Ruth Impey and Louise Nolan from Make It Glasgow have worked on the mosaic tiling of the sculpture’s head under a weatherproof enclosure.

J. and M.P. Bell & Co. Pottery, Dragon plate, pattern registered 1899 and Celebes plate, pattern registered 1890 — *J and M P Bell & Co. Pottery, Dragon plate, pattern registered 1899 and Celebes plate, pattern registered 1890*

In Make It Glasgow’s Art Bothy at the top of the Park there are two antique Scottish china plates, made by J and M P Bell’s Pottery in Glasgow in the 1890s for export to Southeast Asia, with different illustrative interpretations of a Beithir on them, so the motif of the serpent has a long history of being used in pottery decoration. These illustrations provided inspiration for the tiling of Bella’s head, and connect the Beithir project with Glasgow’s rich pottery industry heritage.

Ruth Impey said, ‘This gives Bella a further and deeper layer of meaning other than simply the cousin of the Kelpies – linking her to the extraordinary story of Glasgow’s industrial potteries, ceramic design and global trade.’ Make It Glasgow aims to build a community around the heritage of industrial ceramic production in Scotland and has the ambition to establish a Scottish Pottery Museum on the Park site.

It was artist Nichol Wheatley who proposed that the Beithir’s body be formed from the many tons of earth and material that otherwise would have had to be removed from the site in the making of the Park, saving the substantial cost of removal. This material was then covered in wire mesh and coated in ferro-cement in preparation for tiling.

The head of Bella the Beithir has an impressively modelled three-dimensional quality, and the mosaic tiling is beautifully done. When Bella was unveiled I was immediately reminded of the undulating mosaicked forms at Gaudi’s Parc Güell in Barcelona, and Ruth Impey said that they did indeed have a small version of the Parc Güell salamander in their working enclosure as a mascot while they worked on mosaicking Bella’s head.

*Beithir mosaic detail, the tree, the bird, the fish and the bell*

Looking at the Beithir’s head close-up, the design and execution of the mosaicking is of a very high quality. Incorporated at an early stage were the elements of Glasgow’s city coat of arms – the tree, the bird, the fish and the bell – which are central above Bella’s mouth. The seven winds travel along the length of the body in different colours and using coloured grouts to highlight them. To add to the striking effect, the head will be lit at night – green light shines from a number of coloured circular lenses within Bella’s eyes, and light shines from within her mouth.

Bella is 121 metres long and work will continue over the next 5 years to complete the mosaicking of the ‘scales’ on her body in a collaborative scale-making project led by Louise Nolan, Ruth Impey and Nichol Wheatley. The scales will be made by the three local communities, and is also open to all who would like to participate in creating tiles.

But as with the salamander in Gaudi’s Parc Güell, Stockingfield Bridge Art Park is not just about Bella. There are now 22 pieces of artwork in the Park, all commissioned by Scottish Canals and all with their own part to tell in the story.

Decorative railings detail - Possobilities, celebrating disabled people in the community — *Decorative railings detail – Possobilities, celebrating disabled people in the community*

There are decorative metalwork panels within the new perimeter railings of the Park, by Possobilities, a community charity in North Glasgow, celebrating the contribution of disabled people in the local communities.

*1960s Rover car on cobbled roadway, by David Galbraith*

Close to one Park entrance at Currie Street there is a work incorporating a half-buried 1960s Rover car on a cobbled roadway, by landscape artist (and gym owner) David Galbraith, embedded in the landscape and now overtaken by nature, symbolising moving on from the heavy industries of the past.

*Louise McVey’s ‘The Voice’ sculpture and cairn*

Louise McVey’s The Voice is a very tall mosaicked multi-headed flower sculpture on a cairn-like base, with her beautiful hand made ceramic pieces decorating the inside of trumpet-like flower heads. Like Bella, the wireframe substructure of this piece was fabricated by Scott Associates and again this piece is illuminated in the evening.

*Bench detail, pictorial tiles with Maryhill stories*

*Handmade tiles, including ‘A bridge to Granny’ on base of the bridge spire*

Bench seating in the Park is covered in handmade tiles, including photo image tiles of Maryhill’s history – many of the individual hand-made tiles are very beautiful indeed, and are worth taking the time to study closely. The ‘Many Hands Mosaic’ project created 4,000 community-made tiles for benches and also for the base of the ‘spire’ – the structural column of the new foot and cycle bridge. There are many personal stories incorporated in the tiles: I loved one with the motto ‘a bridge to Granny’ – one individual’s sentiment which in a small way sums up this whole project. Community and local artist involvement has played and will continue to play a very important part in making artworks across the Park, enabled by Make It Glasgow.

*Stockingfield active travel bridge and Bella the Beithir*

Stockingfield Park is worthy of a visit for many reasons, starting with its elevated location allowing panoramic views south and west across the city; then there is also the spectacular engineering of the active travel bridge over the canal, the landscape architecture and not least the artworks, with Bella the Beithir being the new focus of the Park. The hope is that Bella will create an effect similar to that of the Kelpies at Falkirk, and that the Park will become a destination for visitors to see its sights and spend leisure time there. I look forward to following the progress of the mosaicking of Bella over the next few years and to see the Park enjoyed by many visitors as one of Glasgow’s top cultural attractions.

* A ‘Beithir’ is a mythical Scottish serpent associated with lightning and summer storms, from the Fuath family and a cousin of the Kelpies. Artist Nichol Wheatley named the Beithir ‘Bella’ in honour of his friend Alasdair Gray and the character Bella Baxter in Gray’s novel ‘Poor Things’.

Artmag would like to thank Ruth Impey, Louise Nolan, Nichol Wheatley and Scottish Canals for their assistance with this report. With thanks to Gordon Reid for this review.