Rebecca Jewell
- Faculty
Biography
Rebecca Jewell is a London-based printmaker and collage artist. Drawing and nature are at the core of her practice. Her intricate drawings of artefacts and bird specimens, and her unique feather collages, are inspired by material culture and Natural History collections in museums, as well as issues around the contemporary hunting and trapping of birds. Jewell has a PhD from the Royal College of Art (2004, entitled "Understanding Pacific Feather Art through Drawing") and she held a residency with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative on Seaweed Biodiversity (2022–2023). She was invited to be the Public Engagement Artist on the Wellcome-funded Animal Feeding Project (2022–2025), creating a Contemporary Bestiary. Jewell has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally. Her work is held in the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, as well as in many private collections.
On drawing
My tutor at the Royal College of Art, John Norris Wood, said that drawing was about capturing the ‘spirit’ of the subject. He encouraged us to draw from life where possible, and I have spent much time doing this – drawing from Natural History specimens, artefacts in museums, and animals and plants in the field. Drawing is about problem-solving and decision-making; the act of drawing is itself a journey of discovery. Both the finished drawing and the process of drawing become a part of that object's life cycle; represented on paper, the artefact or specimen takes on a new life and the artist gives it a new interpretation. The drawing mobilises the object and gives it new meaning.
