Tag: contemporary mosaic

  • Mosaic as Thoughtful Art Experience

    Mosaic as Thoughtful Art Experience

    Ros Edmonds of Art Docents teaches art interpretation and technique to children ages kindergarten through eighth grade, which is the most important age range for teaching art and science and “planting seeds” that change lives. Ros emailed me some photos of her Mosaic Coaster Project with fifth graders, and I am happy to announce that…

  • Backer for Irregularly-Shaped Mosaic

    Backer for Irregularly-Shaped Mosaic

    I have made another mosaic of Moses dreaming on Mount Sinai, and this version also has an irregular shape. I like making sacred relics and visual artwork that “goes past the frame.” I wanted this mosaic to be on a stone tablet like the original decalogue.

  • Mosaic Design Evolves During Implementation

    Mosaic Design Evolves During Implementation

    I make imaginative artwork using a trial-and-error process, and my compositions evolve during implementation. I study models, but I don’t render from a particular model. I try to capture the archetype, iconic essence.

  • Digital Grout Color Studies

    Digital Grout Color Studies

    Artist Steve Katzman’s first mosaic is a classic decorative design: sparse floral motifs with sufficient background for showing off interesting andamento. The problem is that Steve wasn’t satisfied with the grout color he used, which was very light, almost an off-white color. Also, the grout had an overwhelming color impact because a distinct grout gap…

  • Day-&-Night Table And Decorative Mosaic Design

    Day-&-Night Table And Decorative Mosaic Design

    Artist Pete Keller’s Day-&-Night Mosaic Table is an excellent example of incorporating scenic elements into decorative mosaic design. By “decorative mosaic design,” I mean a mosaic that covers a functional surface such as a table top or floor and is composed so that it is still figuratively meaningful when only a small area is visible.

  • Having “Wrong” Colors Available for Mosaic Art

    Having “Wrong” Colors Available for Mosaic Art

    What Impressionist painting teaches us is that using the exact colors of the model is much more important than exact rendering. We can draw sloppily, but if we get the colors right, the mind of the viewer can do most of the work and perceive an image easily. That critical need for exact colors seems…

  • Aspen Glen Mosaic as Semi-Abstract Art

    Aspen Glen Mosaic as Semi-Abstract Art

    Artist Michael Hayes recently completed a mosaic based on a photo he took of an aspen glen in Colorado several years ago. I wanted to share this mosaic for several reasons and not merely because it is a strong work by someone just starting out with mosaic.

  • Finishing Touches and Revising Mosaics

    Finishing Touches and Revising Mosaics

    I had previously written about Lisa Sunshine’s Eyes Mosaic in my blog article The Importance of Context in Figurative Mosaic Art. In the article, I addressed the problem of the mosaic not being instantly recognizable as eyes, and I recommended extending the bridge of the nose slightly to provide context. Lisa took me up on…

  • Azerbaijan Mosaic Artist

    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…

  • Building a Mosaic Portfolio

    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…

  • White Grout Case Study

    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…

  • Mosaic Garden Art: Fun Group Projects

    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…