Category: Inspiration
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Mosaic Door Progress
This is an update on my Mosaic Door project built from a “series of smalls“, which is the most effective way to improve artistic confidence and ability. A “series of smalls” is more than a simplistic example of practice makes perfect. You can practice by painting works of all sizes and painting many different types…
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Santa Fe Rail Trail Mosaic
Artist Julie Deery is working on a mosaic mural for the wall of the Santa Fe Rail Trail. The location for the mosaic mural is 130 feet of cinderblock wall along the Rail Trail just north of Siringo Road in Santa Fe. The theme of the project is “Generations” with the goal of having community…
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Subtle Color Variegation
I wanted to share more photos of Jill Gatwood’s Mosaic Butterfly commission because it is a good example of subtle use of color variegation when fairly uniform color fields are desired. I often recommend using color variegation (a mix of related hues or shades of a particular hue) as an alternative to monochromatic areas of…
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Underestimating Grout Gaps
Artist Harry Belkowitz’s millefiori mosaic Dove of Peace is a mixed-media piece of artwork with a black painted background surrounding the central mosaic figure. The rainbow silhouette of dove with olive branch might be a little aspirational right now, but I figured we all could use a little hope and beauty. The Dove of Peace…
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Amazing Commission
I have survived the stress of managing the supply business during the pandemic/supply crisis so far only by allowing myself periods when I get very slack in responding to non-crisis emails. I tell myself I will get back to them eventually, but sometimes eventually is a long time. Most emails that can be ignored for…
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Multiple Modes of Andamento
First-time mosaic artist John Schroeder’s Celestial Transom Mosaic is something of a tour-de-force in combining different styles of andamento into a seamless composition. Kids, Don’t Try This at Home Combining different styles of andamento in a mosaic is something I would never recommend to a first-timer. It’s easier to figure out one way of working…
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Blue Crab Mosaic Relic
My dear old friend Jay Brown had been requesting a mosaic of a blue crab for years, and this past week Jay had his official investiture as a federal judge, and so I decided it was time. Art with a Capital A Normally I avoid bespoke commissions like the plague because I have trouble keeping…
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Mosaic Art Exhibition
Janet Crawford has owned and operated Fog Forest Gallery in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada since 1984. The gallery’s current exhibit is called “Piece Works” and has been in the making for several years. As the name implies, the exhibit features works of art that were created by assembling small pieces, and the exhibit itself is…
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Subtle Mosaic Mandalas
New Mexico artist Debbi Murzyn emailed me some pictures of her mosaic mandalas that she made using Native American symbols as the center of the designs. She says she didn’t realize her cultural faux pas until she had completed them, and I think she was a little surprised by the fact that she was surprised.…
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Mosaic Stepping Stone Path
This is an ode to the mosaic stepping stone. There is much to praise: Each stone can be its own design or part of a theme, or even part of a larger mosaic image made by placing similar stepping stones side by side. Stepping stones allow you to build a larger design incrementally, from paths…
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Marble Mosaic Restoration
Angela Bortone and Natalija Moss recently restored a marble mosaic interpretation of a detail from Botticelli’s Venus, the well-known Renaissance painting. They used the Hercules Precision Stone Chopping Machine to cut the Mable Mosaic Cutting Strips they used for the work. Note that many colors of our Mable Mosaic Cutting Strips are currently out of…
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Peacock Redux
My recent blog post about Lonnie Parson’s Peacock mosaic was a cautionary tale about what can happen when you fail to take at least one definitive photo of your finished mosaic. I didn’t want that blog post to be about how to photograph your artwork in optimal light with no foreshortening. I wanted the post…