Artwork for Rew Wood
Duck and chicken dishes
Autumn angel
Family portrait
Love bugs
Mushroom hunter
All of a feather
Gossiping girls
Duck love dishes
Details
I love observing and depicting character. Particularly the everyday magic in the little moments. The over-looked and the common place really attract my eye. It’s the simple acts and habits that shine for me. I find myself delightfully hypnotised when observing a chicken selecting nest sites. Finding a safe spot for a snooze, or her expression when considering laying an egg. Chicken natter fascinates me. A creature’s speed or strength or bulk have never interested me in anything like the same way.
To portray these moments I sculpt in a variety of clays, metals, fabrics and flotsam, using traditional craft techniques but often with a twist. I also paint, guild and smith all manner of up-cycled materials to create a very broad range of products which, I hope, are well observed, characterful, often amusing.
From a young age I have been a lover of the environment and wildlife, campaigning for its protection and later training to care for and nurse some species of injured or abandoned wildlife. My work is often a celebration of those creatures I live with, or care for. I draw, make and sculpt in a free fluid style to show the personalities and unique quirks of my subjects.
I am Rew (Derived from the initials of my name; Rachel Elizabeth Wood) and I am lucky enough to have my home and studio in the beautiful Marches between the river Monnow and the river Wye surrounded by ancient trees and free roaming wildlife. I live with my partner and three rapidly growing children on our tiny small-holding, sharing our life and space with many chickens, ducks, geese, an assortment of sheep, an ancient and very naughty pig and some extremely wilful small dogs that might identify as dachshunds if you asked them, but that’s unlikely as they are very fast and incapable of speaking politely in good company!
I chose to focus on the beauty that is all around us. My subjects might often be quite simple and obvious but they are presented, materially, as a collection of many carefully selected little things which is a deliberate metaphor for the many little things it takes to build the complex and delicate balance of life. Life is truly a great big heaving bewildering mess. As an Artist I simply try to tame that noise and remind people to see the beauty in the little moments.
Albany gallery, Cardiff
Plas Glyn y Weddw, Llanbedrog
The Craft Gallery, Hereford
