Opus Pixellatum - Sheet Music of Mosaics

When I invented Opus Pixellatum in 2015, I wanted a new, faster technique to build mosaics to build huge portraits of the eyes of Yezidi refugees.

Yezidi 37

The principle of Opus Pixellatum is simple. From an original picture, I design and print a grid of vertical and horizontal lines. These lines define square cells.

 

Detail of Yezidi 36 model

On each cell is printed a number corresponding to a colour. I generally use 7 colours from White to Black. So the numbers range from 1 to 7.  

Yezidi 36 model.

 

I build the mosaic by gluing inside each cell the tile corresponding to its number.

Detail of Yezidi 36, Work in Progress

Opus Pixellatum basically seems to be a “Mosaic by Number” system. In itself it has nothing really exciting, but then came the AHA moment...

Building my series of Yezidi eyes, I started to realize there was much more to this technique than I had originally envisioned.

For one thing, you do not need to lay all the tiles to actually begin seeing the image you are trying to create...

Yezidi 20, only half the tiles are laid.

This would allow me to use additional colours different from the 7 ones originally defined. And so I used this on my Yezidi 37.

Detail of the eye of Yezidi 37

 

After completion of my Yezidi series, I decided to experiment mixing together Opus Pixellatum and Tesselatum on the same piece. Which resulted in Carole’s Eyes.

 

Once Caroles’ eyes done I created Blue Carole, in which I replaced all nuances of Grays by nuances of Blues. The result here again, is very interesting...

Blue Carole on the bench - December 12, 2016

What we actually have here with Opus Pixellatum is a totally new way yo approach the laying of Mosaics. This technique provides not just a model, for the artist, but a guide to allow him to express his creativity in a much more improvisional way !  

You can compare the Opus Pixellatum model to the Sheet Music of a symphony.  

If you are a beginner, you try to play it exactly as written by the Author. But if you are a Master, you can allow for improvisation, throw your genius in, and it is probably what the author would have wanted you to do ! 

This is so Cool ! 

 

In 2017, I will research Opus Pixellatum as a way to bring improvisation in mosaics. I will also teach the use of the technique to small groups o f students. I’ll keep posting about this.

 

Keep in touch !

 

I am a French mosaic artist based in Alabama. 

My Art is about Inspiring People.

 

If you are interested by my work, please contact me by phone at (334) 798 1639 or by email at frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

 

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Miura Hanshi Mosaic, all tiles laid !

I finished laying Miura Hanshi's last tiles last night ! 

I worked fast on this piece as I want it ready as early as possible to take pictures, wrap up the rewards for my Kickstarter campaign backers and take with me to Pensylvania for the KNBK Gasshuku in November.

It took me just a little more than 2 weeks to lay this 22 x 30' piece. I hardly worked on any other mosaic while I was building this one.

Miura Hanshi Mosaic, October 3, 2015, DRY

Remember that you are seeing the back of the piece. it will be glued onto a ridgid support before it can be flipped and seen for the first time.

In the afternoon I sprayed the piece with water to show its actual colours.

Miura Hanshi Mosaic, October 3, 2015, WET

Water turned the granite tesserae from a dull grey to a brilliant black. You still cannot see the difference between the two different granites used for the background and for Hanshi's black attire. You'll have to wait until the piece is flipped - which should happen sometimes this week - and cleaned up, which should take care before October 15. 

 

Detail of the head

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

If you are interested by my work or would like to drop me a line please contact me by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com or by phone at (334) 798 1639. 

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Spring Mosaic Workshop - Kids class

On Friday March 27, we held a Children mosaic workshop at the Wiregrass Museum of Art.

I believe Artists have a responsibility to help others be creative. Too many kids are being told they cannot be creative, that Art is useless and for weirdoes,  that they should rather concentrate on having a real job... And making money.

And there is nothing wrong in making money. Without entrepreneurs, few things would be achieved in this world, and Art could not flourish. 

But guess what ? Do you remember the names of those people who were making money 500 years ago? Take the Italian Renaissance, the 16th century. They invented modern banking. Entrepreneurs from Genoa and Venice invented financial instruments such as the letter of credit, and this really was the beginning of the finance industry. Do you remember these guys names ? I don't ! 

But you probably know the artists they helped finance: Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, etc...

This why Art is important. Art is what you SEE. And tomorrow's Art will be done by today's children. 

That is why I teach mosaics ! 

For a few weeks I prepaired the class. My goal was simply to get people to realize how mosaics were done. Technique rather than the creative aspect, so I had pre-designed some models.

And we would use square tiles we would not need to cut !

Material for the 6' Solomon Knot mosaics

The models were square variations of a classic Roman mosaic pattern : the Solomon knot.

Aquileia Basilica, Italy

At 9:00, all 9 students were presents, most of them chaperoned by an adult helper, and after a short introduction, we proceeded with the actual work.

I had decided to use laminated models for this projects, so the students built their mosaics on a fiberglass mesh, which would be later transferred onto a wooden piece.

Mosaic is a work of patience and accuracy, we were using 3/8" glass tiles glued on the mesh with regular white glue.

The students ranged from 7 to 13 years old. Most of them were accompanied by an adult. Who seemed to enjoy the class as much as their kids !

It is amazing how you can at such a young age already see great differences of personality in the way children organize - or not - their works, prioritize certain tasks or simply go for it !

We had 2 different models of Solomon knot, and used 6 different colours of tiles.

It took most students a little more than 2 hours to complete the project. At the end, the pieces were warmed up with a Hair-dryer to speed up the gluing process.










After they were complete, I collected the 9 pieces on their laminated support .

9 complete mosaics on their models.

and transferred them on their wooden support. 

9 complete mosaics on wood.

Some students had modified the designs, and it is a good thing ! Life would be boring if everyone would look the same ! Moreover, the point of such a class is not to realize a perfect piece, but to get the student to enjoy themselves. If you insist too much on the end result, you will probably lose all pleasure at doing anything. And the key to doing things well is to enjoy doing them...

I am a modern mosaic artist inspired by the Arts of Classical Rome and French and Italian Renaissance. I design and realize my mosaics in Headland, Alabama, and St Valery sur Somme, France. I hope this kind of action can help young people realize they too can be creative and that art is not some far away thing, only accessible in Museums but that they too can be artists and enjoy it.

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You can also see more of my work at mosaicblues.com.

ROBERT LISAC, Mosaic Artist - Interview

Meet the very talented Robert Lisac, Mosaicist from Slovenia...

I am not sure exactly when I first met you Robert Lisac. I remember seeing one of your mosaics on Pinterest. A portrait of King George, the older Australian Aborigene depicted in the movie Australia, also featuring Nicole Kidman.

I found this portrait very powerful, and felt compelled to contact you. We started to exchange through emails and instant messages, and realized we had things in common beside mosaics, Martial Arts, and the practice of several languages being some of them. Today, I would like to ask you a few questions about your Art, and share them with mosaic aficionados of the world !

1 - Robert, you live in Slovenia. You make and teach mosaics there. Your portfolio includes a variety of styles, and I would like to speak about several of them.  I first met you through this King George Portrait. King George is a man who lives in harmony with nature. He does not submit nature to his will, but pulls his resilience from nature. I feel a strong current of Life Energy in your mosaics. Where do you get this strength ?

Frederic, maybe this strength is coming from just trusting my own intuition. I just wanted to make this mosaic portrait, because I just admired the whole story King George represents. OK, I’m really strong in making portraits, but personally I really like the more intuitive process of making mosaics and in this case it was a combination of both aspects, making a mosaic portrait in a very intuitive way. Normally I never make portraits in that way. 

2 - One other amazing project you have been involved with is a monumental mosaic Dragon in Brac. A community project. Can you tell us more about this, how did you get involved with this project, how big is the Dragon, how many people were involved, when will it be complete ? I understand there is a stone circle beside the site of the Dragon, are these prehistoric remains ?

This is for sure one of my most favourite mosaic projects. Actually it is a dragon lady and she is 8 m long. The dragon lady isn’t finished yet. About half of the dragon is covered already with ceramic tiles and at the end of April we have to cover the rest. It is a volunteer project, nobody gets paid for anything and we are just there, because we love to be creative and without an amazing team of enthusiasts who helped me a loooot, this project would still be just an idea.

We built that dragon on Brač island on the Geaviva site (www.geaviva.net) and the owner of this site is Sabine Engelhardt and it was her idea to make the dragon, because the history of Brač is closely connected to dragons. There is even a dragon cave on the island and you should really visit it, because also the guide who makes the whole tour is really great!

After a few days of making the dragon it turned out, that it had a lot of female energy, so from then on it’s a lady. You can see more pictures of the whole process here : http://www.robertlisac.com/mosaic-dragon-statue-on-brac/

The stone circle is actually a geomantic structure, because Sabine is practising geomancy and is giving also workshops on this topic. Geomancy is like feng shui, but the approach is more Western orientated and much more practical. Today the stone circle serves as a place for geomancy workshops, dancing workshops, permaculture workshops and of course for meditation.I think, that Sabine created something really great !

I have to say, that also Ilonka Vukaš a croatian mosaic artist, who lives in Germany helped a lot in the second phase to cover the dragon lady with ceramic tiles. You see, it’s a project where everyone is welcome and if anyone is interested to participate in this project to finish the dragon on 25, 26 and 27 of April, you are kindly invited to do so, but please contact Sabine : www.geaviva.net.




 

3 - For the past year or so, you have become more and more involved in Mikromosaics. I even remember reading a post of yours explaining how you made your own ceramic micro tesserae. This is a fascinating aspect of your work. Not only do you make mosaics, you also make the ceramic you use to make your mosaics ! Can you tell us more about making your own mosaic material ?

I wish I could answer this question in a short way, because there is so much to say about this topic. The main reason why I make a lot of my mosaic materials by myself is that if I want to buy it, it’s just to expensive and very often I don’t even like the materials, because they are not unique and therefore the mosaic is looking like very other mosaic. So, I found out, the more I’m involved in making my own tesserae, the more soul the whole mosaic has. Of course this is my opinion and it has not to be true for other mosaic artists. So I started to experiment with it a lot, I was even pit firing my tesserae and these were experiments, some went wrong, but the result was actually always positive, because I learned a lot. Here are more about pit firing clay tesserae : http://www.robertlisac.com/pit-firing-micro-mosaic-tesserae/

4 - Back to the Micromosaics. It is a mosaic form I do not know much about. Many artists around the world make micromosaiks. Can you tell us a little more about this style of mosaic and why you have been attracted to it.

There are several reasons why I like to make micro mosaics at the moment. 

1. With the birth of my daughter a lot of things changed and I found out, if I wanted to stay creative I had to use the small amount of time whenever I could to work a little bit on my mosaics and micro mosaics are perfect to do just that. All you have to do is taking a box out of the drawer and then you can just start. With « normal » mosaics it’s not that easy. 

Timelines, 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4")

2. I’m some kind of minimalist working on a such small level is much closer to a green living philosophy, than big making mosaics from artificial materials.

Windows of opportunities, 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4") - Sold

3. I just love it, although it’s a sadomasochistic process...

5 - You also have experimented with Pebble mosaics. I even remember an interview you made of a great Pebble mosaic artist.  Some of the first Greek mosaics we have are located in Pella, in Macedonia. They were made of tiny pebbles. Do you harvest them yourself on a beach or on a river bank, or do you purchase them ?

As I told before, the more I’m involved in the process of making my own materials, the better the result. So, I avoid buying pebbles, because there are everywhere and this is why I’m not a normal tourist, when I’m somewhere at a river or on a beach with beautiful pebbles. That’s why I’m always looking down instead of looking around ;-).

Let the sun shine on me 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4")

6 - Your work is definitely and vibrantly  modern, and yet, mosaics are one of the earliest form of Art we have from our prehistoric ancestors. When you create one of your mosaics, you repeat the same moves our Roman ancestors were using to create theirs. Is that a part of your inspiration ?

You made a good point here. Yes, of course I like the idea, that mosaic artists were making the same things in their own way as I do today. But for me personally I do more like the crazy paving style, because it’s more dynamic. Can you imagine King George done in a Greek or Roman way ? I can’t, but I do respect these classical styles a lot, because they started the whole thing.

7 - It seems that like me you believe an artist should be involved in teaching art, and helping people realize they too can, and should be creative, I understand you give classes and seminars. Can you tell us more about these ?

Bruce Lee once said : "Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own". This is how I was teaching martial arts and this is how I teach making mosaics. I try to give them what my students need, I try to help them to discover their style right from the beginning, because I believe that mosaics should serve to the people and not the opposite way. That’s why it’s much more important, if they learn to express themselves, the more they will express themselves, the better also the technique will be. My goal is to give workshops also in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and everywhere else where they speak English, because the Slovene market is so small and I enjoy travelling, teaching and of course meeting other mosaic enthusiasts.

 

8 - Beside the fact that it stands on the beautiful Adriatic sea, I do not know much about your country.  Your main Website is written in Slovenian language. You have sites in English and German on the net. Do you sell lots of your work outside of Slovenia ? Are there Galleries in Europe where people could see your work ? Please give us the links to these places where we can meet you on the net ?

Frederic, you have to come to sLOVEnia, we have beautiful mountains, the sea, caves and tons of cool pebbles ;-) and of course good wine and beer.

Contact Robert Lisac:

My Slovene homepage is : www.robertlisac.com
My German homepage is www.mikromosaik.blogspot.com
  Please feel free to contact me, even if you are not speaking Slovene or German, I know some English as you see and if you have any question or comment, please let me know.

My email address is : roartdoo@gmail.com .
 
And of course you can also join my FB fanpages :
https://www.facebook.com/robertlisacartist or
https://www.facebook.com/mikromosaik .
 

Frederic, thank you so much for this interview and this great opportunity. 

I am a French Mosaicist established in Alabama, USA. I blog about all things mosaic ! If you enjoyed this interview of Robert be sure that by subscribing to my:

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you will learn a lot more about mosaics, ancient and modern, techniques, stories, legends and archaeology...

Carlotta - Part deux

3 weeks ago I posted in Digital Drawing of a Mosaic Portrait about the first stages of the design of an actual mosaic portrait.

From an original picture I designed a coloured and a black and white drawing of my mosaic.

Carlotta - Polarized.

From that picture came a black and white one later to be used to print the actual model.

So far, most of the work had been realized through computer.

As I intend to build this piece in a classical roman style, I added around our young friend a double meander frame.

Carlotta ready to print.

I still had to define the colours for the unglazed ceramic tiles on the colour picture itself.

And on a Chart going with it. These are unglazed ceramic tiles.

And finally also had to define the colours of the glass tiles for the double meanders, which I did based on colours used on various actual Roman mosaics.

Lod (Israel)  - Detail of a panel border.

After all these definition work it was time to decide which actual tiles I would employ. This is going to be my first portrait made of unglazed ceramic only, and I have had to find tesserae of  21 different colours. Having accumulated ceramic tesserae from several trips to Europe, I found in the workshop all that I needed. 

On March 15, I lined up the containers of tesserae around Carlotta's model, on the working table where I will build her ! 

This is the actual support onto which I will build the mosaic itself. I will use the reverse method and you can see it is the mirror image of the original picture...

In a next post I will show you the actual building of this reverse method mosaic. Make sure you receive it in your mailbox : please subscribe to my Mosaicblues Newsletter where I also share with you news about Materials, Techniques and Sources of Inspiration of modern and antique (Specially Greeks and Romans) Mosaic Artists and Patrons !

I am a French Mosaic Artist. I usually live and work with my 2 dogs, 2 cats and 10 chickens in Headland, Alabama, USA but I have a second studio in Saint Valery sur Somme, France. You can see more of my mosaics on my mosaicblues page.

If you would like to discuss or commission a portrait mosaic, or any other type of mosaic, please call me at (334) 798 1639 or drop me an email at  frederic.lecut@gmail.com.