Category: Art Review
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Semi-Abstract Mosaic As a Learning Exercise
Mosaic as a medium has several intrinsic strengths and weaknesses. The main weakness it has as a selling point is that it takes significantly more time than drawing or painting for an image of similar complexity. The intrinsic strengths of the mosaic medium far outweigh the time commitment. For starters, mosaic is a “gateway” medium…
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Azerbaijan Mosaic Artist
Samir İmamverdiyev is the son of the accomplished Azerbaijan mosaicist Musa İmamverdiyev, and he is currently in Iceland and looking for opportunities. I get the impression that Samir would consider opportunities anywhere in North America or the E.U., particularly in Iceland. Samir’s mosaics are impressive architectural murals. His subjects are portraits of medieval poets of…
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Building a Mosaic Portfolio
Artist Jacqueline Spohnholtz is building a mosaic portfolio to solicit commissioned work, and she is doing it in an intelligent way in my opinion. Of course the portfolio needs to be uploaded to an online platform such as the artist’s website or Instagram, and it needs to be built from catalogue-quality photographs (full spectrum white…
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White Grout Case Study
Artist Mark Eibes‘ hummingbird mosaic is figurative art made from (mostly) whole tile, and it makes a great case study for deciding if you should use white grout for your mosaic artwork. Mark wasn’t satisfied with the white grout, and so I explained how the grout of dry indoor mosaics can be stained by with…
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Mosaic Garden Art: Fun Group Projects
Artist Donna Stern recently completed a series of abstract mosaics that are exactly what I think of when someone emails asking for fun project ideas for a group day in the studio. Series of Smalls The first thing is that it is a series. More importantly, each element in the series is the same size…
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Harmonious Hues and Abstract Mosaic Art
Artist Zane Pahl’s recently completed mosaic patio table is a solid example of using harmonious hues in an abstract design. I have not written enough about this type of mosaic, especially considering its popularity and its accessibility. Zane’s mosaic is an interesting teaching example because the color scheme is about harmonious hues instead of contrasting…
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Getting Mosaic Artwork Right
Many artists are plagued with self-doubt, including some of the great ones, but there are several ways to overcome these fears and make better art: The first of these are quick, small studies and sketches which can be made before a particular detail in the main work is executed. In mosaic, a “sketch” can be…
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Thoughtful Backgrounds Improve Mosaic Artwork
Artist Bonnie Eisner emailed me a photo of her Hansa (Hand of Fatima) mosaic in progress because we were out of the color she wanted to use for the whole background. My solution to the shortage was to take the problem as an opportunity to enhance the design by using andamento, color variation, and pattern…
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The Amazing Stylistic Range of Figurative Mosaic Art
Artist Jennifer Kuhn has an impressive body of work that demonstrates the stylistic range of figurative mosaic artwork. Normally when I need to describe the range of styles of mosaic artwork, I emphasize how found objects can be used as improvised tiles and how that multiplies the number of styles of abstract art that are…
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The Importance of Context in Figurative Mosaic Art
Artist Lisa Sunshine emailed us asking about improving one of her recent mosaics, and Natalija and I both agreed that the problems Lisa perceived in her work largely disappeared when the mosaic was viewed at the appropriate distance. The situation reminded me of a line from the award-winning 1995 movie Clueless, which is the story…
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Floor Inset Mosaic Medallions
Artist Catherine Augustus recently installed some mosaic medallion insets in the floor of St Clare of Assisi Catholic Church on Daniel Island, South Carolina, and you might want to take a look. These mosaics were a volunteer project for the artist and her team of parishioners. They learned on the job and had to dance…
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Masterpiece Miniature Mosaic Series
In centuries past, crafts people worked in guilds, with a guild for each craft: shoemakers, gold smiths, etc. To join a guild, a person had to apprentice themselves to a member of the guild for years and work themselves up from repetitive physical work in the studio to more and more advanced tasks over time.…