Category: Art Review

  • Inspiring Mosaic Portraits Using A Grid Pattern

    Inspiring Mosaic Portraits Using A Grid Pattern

    David Armstrong has created some inspiring mosaic portraits, and he did it using whole tiles arranged in a grid instead of irregular pieces cut and fit as needed. Normally, I dislike mosaic designs based on grids because they lack the extra visual element provided by tile arrangement (andamento), but David’s work has tons of visual interest that more…

  • Pan’s Head Mosaic: A Classical Interpretation

    Pan’s Head Mosaic: A Classical Interpretation

    Artist Frederic Lecut’s “Pan’s Head” mosaic has a style that matches its theme, and it is a great example of using classical elements in a contemporary mosaic. The face of the “goat-footed god of Attica” or Pan is the subject of Lecut’s mosaic, and consequently the artist incorporates several aspects of ancient Greek mosaic in his…

  • Mosaic Artist Frederic Lecut’s Opus Pixellatum Technique

    Mosaic Artist Frederic Lecut’s Opus Pixellatum Technique

    Artist Frederic Lecut’s Opus Pixellatum Technique is a tool for rapidly creating original photorealistic mosaics and incorporating improvised elements. Artist Frederic Lecut Mosaic Artist Frederic Lecut creates striking portraits of people’s eyes, mosaics that are photorealistic in execution and powerful as compositions because they are cropped closely and look almost like eyes seen in a Niqab.

  • Glass or Ceramic Tile for Mosaic Patio Table?

    Glass or Ceramic Tile for Mosaic Patio Table?

    Ceramic tile can be used for outdoor mosaic patio tables provided you live someplace warm year round, but otherwise glass tile should be used because it is impervious to moisture and freeze damage. There are other reasons to use glass tile explained later in this article. Concrete Patio Table Set Artist Naomi Haas recently completed a…

  • How To Price Mosaic Art

    How To Price Mosaic Art

    Pricing art is difficult because it is subjective, and pricing mosaic artwork is even more problematic due to the extra labor required to make it, but there is a structured way to determine a hard number, even if the buyer is a friend or relative. Recently artist Valri Castleman emailed my a photo of her untitled mosaic shown…

  • How To Add Texture To Mosaic Art

    How To Add Texture To Mosaic Art

    Mosaic artwork can include rough textural elements that would be impractical in architectural tiling such as a shower wall, which needs to be smooth for cleaning and safety. Note that smooth does not mean flat. You can have textural elements in an architectural surface, but they need to be rounded and not jagged. (Cheese-grater walls…

  • Patio Mosaic Alternatives

    Patio Mosaic Alternatives

    Patios are excellent locations for mosaics, but the patio floor itself is not as good a surface for a mosaic as a surrounding wall or brick planter would be. The main reason is simple: metal patio furniture will crack and crush glass tile, and glass is the preferred material because it is frost proof, economical, and comes…

  • Mosaic Interpretation of Picasso Painting

    Mosaic Interpretation of Picasso Painting

    Brian Kyle’s mosaic interpretation of Picasso’s painting “Man With Ice Cream Cone” is a refreshing departure from the cute themes that seem to dominate contemporary mosaic artwork. Brian calls his mosaic “The Lecher” and says that some people are creeped out by it. I say that makes it real Art (with a capital A) in the sense of…

  • Doraemon Japanese Manga Mosaic Installation Video

    Doraemon Japanese Manga Mosaic Installation Video

    Rolando Jose made a mosaic of his favorite cartoon character Doraemon using broken pieces of glazed ceramic tile obtained locally in Panama and our black 12mm recycled glass tile for outlining. Rolando Jose made a video of creating and installing the mosaic and used Doraemon’s theme song for the soundtrack. Doraemon is a Japanese manga character. The…

  • Photorealistic Mosaic Landscape

    Photorealistic Mosaic Landscape

    Yosemite Mosaic Landscape Yosemite Mosaic landscape by Jim Price. Limitations of the Grid and Tile as Pixels Jim Price’s Yosemite Mosaic is an excellent example of how photorealistic mosaic art does NOT have to be rendered in a uniform grid of pixels. For an example of a gridded mosaic where tiles are used as pixel, look…

  • Mosaic Baptismal Font

    Mosaic Baptismal Font

    Artist Sondra Jonson recently completed a mosaic baptismal font for St. James Catholic Church using our gold glass mosaic and metallic glass tile and vitreous glass tile, and it turned out really well. Religious architecture is supposed to be instructive and inspiring, and so Sondra used a spiral galaxy motif for the bottom of the font and a night sky with stars for the…

  • David Bowie, Springsteen, Strummer, Waits Mosaic Portraits

    David Bowie, Springsteen, Strummer, Waits Mosaic Portraits

    Fredrik Tigerstrom (“T29ART” on Instagram) has made some impressive mosaic portraits of rock icons David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Strummer, and Tom Waits. These mosaics are worth sharing for several reasons, and not merely because they are faithful renderings of famous people. Yes, these mosaics are “accurate” in terms of capturing individual likeness, and that is an accomplishment…