Rebecca works in a variety of media, including printmaking (etching and monoprint), feather collage, watercolour painting and drawing. Here are some examples of Rebecca’s work and commissions, some of which are available for sale.
Artworks in the British Museum Permanent Collection
In 2006 the British Museum purchased an etching by Rebecca entitled ‘The Return.’ In 2010 Rebecca donated four drawings, relating to her Art Residency on the Melanesia Project (2005-2010). In 2020 the Museum selected forty artworks relating to the Oceania collection and spanning over twenty years (1999-2019) of Rebecca’s career as an artist working with, and inspired by, the British Museum collection. You can see images of the work here.
Drawings and Paintings
Nature studies, as well as watercolour paintings and drawings, charcoal drawings and sketches of museum specimens and artefacts.
Prints
Etchings and Monoprints. Etchings are made using copper or zinc plates - the drawing is etched with acid and tones are created using aquatint and chine collé (application of coloured tissue). The plate is inked-up and editioned using an etching press. Monoprints are one-off prints made by drawing straight onto the plate with ink, or placing inked-up feathers onto a plate, and this is run through the press and printed onto paper. Only one of each image is produced.
Feather Collages
Hand-printed feathers using the paper-litho method, collaged onto archival mountboard. The paper image is inked-up and the feather placed on top and run through the etching press. Each feather is individually printed, flattened and dried and then they are arranged into designs and stuck down using archival adhesive. All of the feathers are sourced from either Rebecca’s own doves (she collects the moulted feathers) or she uses white goose, turkey and duck feathers acquired from suppliers to the millinery trade
Others
Sculptures, installations, vintage-framed printed feathers, feather brooches, quill pens and pots, feather tiaras, artist’s books, wallpaper, silk scarves, exotic feather and nature specimen collection. The ‘vintage’ frames are mid-century photo frames from Denmark, with antique convex glass.
All photographs by Duncan Phillips
© Rebecca Jewell