Meet the Parents : Mosaic Portrait of Natalie and Aaron

Last week I wrote about the portrait of Lane and Ella. 

Mosaic Portrait of Lane and Ella

Aaron had commissioned this mosaic in 2013 as a Mother's day present for Natalie. 

Today, I would like you to meet their parents Natalie and Aaron. Natalie commissioned this portrait in 2016 for their 10th anniversary !

Mosaic portrait of Natalie and Aaron

I have known Natalie and Aaron for close to 20 years when the 3 of us where practicing Karate. Being myself in Auburn to judge a testing last week end they invited me to share their meal (Great cooking, they raise their own chickens and grow vegetables in their yard, just like I do in Headland !) and our friend Julie (the Deer Hunter) took this great picture of the three of us under the mosaic !

Fred, Natalie and Aaron and their mosaic.

Do they look happy or what ?

To commission a mosaic portrait, you can contact me at : frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

I am a French mosaicist

living in Headland, Alabama, USA.

My Art is about inspiring people.

You can see some of my work 

at www.mosaicblues.com

You can contact me either by phone 

at (334) 798 1639 or by email at 

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

You can also subscribe to my

MosaicBlues Newsletter

 

A mosaic portrait of two happy children

In May 2013, I created a mosaic portrait of Ella and Lane, the children of my good friends Natalie and Aaron from Auburn, Alabama.

Mosaic Portrait of Ella and Lane

in 2014, Natalie sent me a picture of the kids under their portrait ! 

The kids under their mosaic portrait

The first thing you see when you come into the house is the gorgeous smile of the kids on the mosaic on the wall facing the entrance door !

Last week end, as I was bringing them a small mosaic derived from my Miura Project, Aaron invited me to share their meal (Great Hamburgers and grilled chicken) and he took this picture of the kids and me under the mosaic ! 

Fred, Ella, Lane, under their mosaic portrait.

Knowing that people I appreciate enjoy my art daily is very rewarding to me. I feel I am contributing something positive to their family. Art should be present in everybody's daily life. We mostly remember ancient civilizations and cultures for the creations of their artists and architects.

If you would like to commission a mosaic portrait, you can contact me at :

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

In one of my next posts, I'll tell you of the other portrait I created for Natalie and Aaron. 

I am a French mosaicist

living in Headland, Alabama, USA.

My Art is about inspiring people.

You can see some of my work 

at www.mosaicblues.com

You can contact me either by phone 

at (334) 798 1639 or by email at 

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

You can also subscribe to my

MosaicBlues Newsletter

 

Completing Carola Quinta - the last cuts.

I am presently completing Carola Quinta, the fifth of my Opus Pixellatum series of Carole's eyes. I only have 3 to 4 % of the tiles left to lay, but they will take about 10 % of the total laying time.

I have used in this piece the 3 Opus Pixellatum and Tesselatum and Sextile techniques. Tessellatum is perfect for the curvy vines growing on top of the background layer. The bottom boulders (I harvested on the parking lot of the riding trail ...) qualify as Sextile.

Green boulders at the bottom right corner.

Because of these irregular and spiral shapes, I have to cut some of my small square tesserae to fit the curves. This accounts for the extra time spent in the completing stage of this piece which should be available in August after I come back from visiting some Romans sites in France next month.  

I am a French mosaicist.

In 1992 I made Alabama his home.

  My Art is about inspiring People.

You can contact me either 

by phone at (334) 798 1639 or by email at 

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

You can also subscribe to my

MOSAIC NEWSLETTER

2017 Spring Mosaic Art Fiesta

The First Mosaic Fiesta was held last March 24, 25 and 26 in Decatur, GA.

The event co-hosted by Joe Moorman and Frederic Lecut, from Mosaic Art Supply and MosaicBlues was attended by confirmed mosaicists from all over the USA.

We all met Friday night in a local restaurant.

And got started Saturday at 10:00 AM.

The goal of the event was to introduce my Opus Pixellatum technique to a group of confirmed mosaicists.


Each participant had send me a picture of their eyes or face 2 weeks ahead of the event and I had prepared a model of their eyes. They would realize an actual mosaic of those eyes during the week end.

I had also brought with me all supplies and tools necessary for the work : Grout, Glues, Tweezers, Mounted Backing boards...

The tiles were available from Mosaic Art Supply.

I had previously organized many workshops, community projects and classes so people would discover mosaics. It is a much different feeling to be working with people who have for some of them many years of experience in the trade. They are interested in the matters, and their questions are always pertinent !

Everyone had an idea about the principle of Opus Pixellatum. My goal was to get them to practice, and get a first taste of the many wonderful variations allowed by this dramatic technique. 


Everyone got to work

Daniel Baxley and Sandra Atherton at the beginning.

By laying every other tile... Which allows for a much easier, more accurate laying. 

Amy Galbavy has laid about 25 % of her tiles.

And later allows the mosaicist to unleash her creativity in many directions...

Once laid half the tiles in grayscale, you realize you already can see the portrait you have been building. So you now can fill up the remaining holes with any color you'd like to use. No matter what you do, the original pattern is already there. 

As we were building eyes portraits, I suggested to use irridescent tiles to highlight the irises of the eyes...

  

A happy Daniel Baxley and his mosaic ready to mount

By the middle of the afternoon, we were ready to glue our mosaics on their supports.

Daniel Adams, cleaning up the glue.

Everyone went back to their hotels around 6:30 pm, having spent about 7 hours on their mosaics. 

Sunday morning, we grouted our pieces.


While the grout was setting I explained how to create an Opus Pixellatum model from a picture. I answered many questions, and finally proposed to build models for those of them who would like me to do so. The offer was appreciated.

 

I am a French mosaic artist  established in Alabama.
In 2015 I created a new mosaic technique. I named  it Opus Pixellatum. When I realized this technique allowed for much more than I was expecting I decided to share it with confirmed mosaicists.

If you'd like to learn more about Opus Pixellatum, or  would like me to create a model of a custom mosaic pattern from one of your picture, please contact me by email at frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com 

or by phone at (334) 798 1639 

You can also subscribe to my  
Mosaic Newsletter

 

Flipping the Mystery Mosaic

As Resident Artist of the Wiregrass Museum of Art, I installed the Mystery Mosaic last April. 

This mosaic, at 50 x 50" (125 x 125 cm) is the biggest baddest free standing piece I have designed to this date.  

The coolissime aspect of this project is that this Mosaic would be built by the Visitors to the Museum ! They were the very ones who would actually be laying the 4096 little tiles on the model I had designed without telling anyone what the final mosaic would be ! 

Hence the dramatic "Mystery Mosaic" name !

We had planned it would take 2 month to lay the 4,400 tiles of the mosaic. It took 10 days and a group of very dedicated High School students !

The Mosaic in designed in Opus Pixellatum was realized upside down. 

On July 21st, I flipped the piece diuring the Art after Hours event at the Museum and the public, including some who had participated in the building, were able to see it for the first time. 



Flipping the Mystery Mosaic from Frederic Lecut on Vimeo.

 

I am a French Mosaic artist based in Alabama. My Art is about Inspiring people, I am presently working on huge portraits of the eyes of Yezidi Refugees and on an other Mosaic Community Project involving several hundreds participants in partnership with Troy University in Dothan and the Wiregrass Museum of Art.

If you would like to discuss how to use mosaics to develop communities or are interested by other aspects of my work, please contact me by phone at (334) 798 1639 or by email at frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

You can also subscribe to my NEWSLETTER

Mosaic Portrait - Natalie & Aaron

Early in May I completed a Portrait of 2 good friends of mine :

Aaron & Natalie, mosaic on Cement backing board,  25" (63 cm) x 28" (70 cm)

This piece was a present from Natalie to Aaron for their 10th anniversary.

I have known Natalie and Aaron for a long time. They had invited me to their wedding, and I had done a portrait of their children a few years ago. Now Natalie wanted their own !

She provided me with some recent pictures...

I rearranged to get their heads closer and create an actual model without a background. 

 

Knowing that Aaron liked Bamboos ...

I played with the colours of this image to create several projects...

I shared with Natalie

It took about 3 weeks to design the model and define the colours...

And I finally went to work...

Mid April,  the main piece was ready for its frame...

The addition of a brilliant Murano glass border was a little tricky, but finally...

By the end of April the whole piece had been flipped, cleaned up and grouted...

This mosaic is made of 8 mm recycled glass tiles. The portrait itself is made of black, white and 4 shades of grey tiles, while the colourful bamboo background uses 14 different colours !

The main mosaic portrait, made of small 3/16" glass tiles is encased in a brilliant cobalt blue mosaic made of much bigger murano glass tiles.

Roman Musivarii were using the same kind of technique. Extremely detailed "emblemata" mosaics were created by master craftsmen in dedicated workshops, then shipped to their destination anywhere in the Empire where local artists would incorporate them into bigger works.

Bacchus Emblemata, Rome, 2nd century AD

The process of clearly defining a commission mosaic can be lengthy when people live in different places. It took about 3 weeks of communication with Natalie to find what would really please her. 

Good communication between Artist and Collector is important, because you do not get a mosaic as you would a hamburger or a pair of shoes. It will stay with you for a long time, and hopefully in your family for even longer ! 

I want to make sure I understand my collectors' desires, what they need, what they are looking for in a mosaic. If I can, I go to the place where the mosaic will be displayed to get a better feeling about the place, the light, the ambiance. This kind of preparatory work is important to create a good fit between artist and collector !

I am a modern mosaic artist with a deep admiration for ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Arts. You can see some of my own mosaics on my site mosaicblues.

 

If you are interested by my work in general or if you would simply like to drop me a line, 

please contact me by email at

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

or by phone at (334) 798 1639.  

 

You can also

SUBSCRIBE to my

NEWSLETTER

Yezidis 011 and 021

There are a few things I really do not like. Child abuse is one of them. And so child abuse on a large scale, such as what the Yezidis children is something that deeply saddens me. And I do not like what is happening to the Yezidis women who are systematically raped and sold in slavery by their captors eager to go back to their interpretation of the Arabian 7th century society.

I cannot fix greed, hatred and stupidity, but I can try to help. 

I already have created one portrait of one of these children. This portrait is at the welding shop right now to get its frame made, and I will publish it once it is complete, but you can get some idea from my November 12 post "Yezidi Eyes"

I am presently working on two more portraits. 

Here are the models : 

A little girl

Yezidi 011

And a young boy.

Yezidi 021

I am realizing these mosaics according to a new and very unique method. To my knowledge, nobody ever made mosaics this way. The mosaics are realized in black and white, using only tiny glass tiles of various shades of grey.


The result is unique and stunning, as you will see it very soon once the first piece comes back from the shop. 

For the time being here are 2 pictures taken on Dec 4. As you can see, I am working in a very different way from the usual.

Yezidi 011- December 4.

It is however, a reverse method on mesh similar as what I have done for my last Pomegranate Tree. At the time I am writing (Dec 7) I have progressed some more, but have had to stop for I am waiting for a shipment of tiles ! 

Yezidi 021, Dec 4.

These kids were able to escape the persecution. They are now hosted in camps in Turkey and Iraq, financed by the Free Yezidi Foundation.

My goal is to auction these mosaics sometimes in the spring to raise money to help the foundation. I will donate 50 % of the profit of the auction to this cause.  

I have no idea of the way to organize this, so if you like this project and would like to help or participate, please let me know at frederic.lecut@gmail.com, or call me at (334) 798 1639.

 

I am a modern mosaic artist with a deep admiration for ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Arts. You can see some of my own mosaics on my site mosaicblues.

 

If you are interested by this project or by my work in general 

or if you would simply like to drop me a line, please 

contact me by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com  

or by phone at (334) 798 1639. 

 

   You can also

SUBSCRIBE to my

NEWSLETTER

to receive regular updates on this

Yezidi Eyes Mosaic Project, 

and my other projects.