Wall Art, T-Shirts, Mugs, Bags and Phone cases inspired by my Mosaics

Many people have told me they would like to be able to purchase prints or objects inspired by my work. 

After months of research, I finally found a company I trust to provide the quality I want for products derived from my work.

You will find on my new RedBubble Page many different products derived from my work : Mugs, Greeting Cards, Prints, Shirts, Cellphone cases, etc....

The page is organized by collections of mosaics so you can browse them to see for each design which product is available.

Rising Sun t-shirt

Rising Sun mini Skirt

Rising Sun phone case

Rising Sun Mug

Or you can chose to browse products to see which design is available for each one of them. 

Pan God Mug

Miura Hanshi Mug

Veiled B&W Mug

Red Tree Mug

Other products are available and I hope you enjoy these new opportunities. If you were interested by a product that is not available, please contact me and I'll try to find a way to create it for you.

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@mosaicblues.com or by phone at (334) 798 1639. 

You can also 

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Muses, Mosaic and Music.

Did you know that the two words Mosaic and Music have a similar ancient Greek root "μουσ" (mous) ?

Both words are relatives to the Muses, goddesses of the arts. Themselves a favourite theme of classical Roman mosaicists !

The nine Muses mosaic of Kos (Rhodes Island)

"Music" comes from the ancient Greek “μουσικός” (Mousikos)

"Mosaic" was formed from the ancient Greek "μουσεῖον" (Mouseîon)

This video is an accelerated take of my building the Mugen mosaic, a portrait of my late Border Collie Mugen who died 3 years ago, realized in Opus Pixellatum. The music is from Beethoven, and it is interpreted by my 2 nieces Charlotte and Luana. So here, you have the best of the 2 worlds of music and mosaic, a family business ! 

If you would like me to build a model of a mosaic portrait of your pet please contact me at frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

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@mosaicblues.com 
or by phone at (334) 798 1639. 

You can also 

SUBSCRIBE to my

NEWSLETTER

The Mona Lisa of Gallilee - A case of plagiarism in Roman Mosaic Art ?

Since the beginning of humanity, artists have been borrowing from each other.  In a previous post, I wrote about the amazing similarities between a 2nd century BC Pasiphae Mosaic in Zeugma - Turkey and a 1st century AD fresco from the House of the Vettii in Pompeii, Italy. 

Today I'd like to share with you an example of a troubling resemblance between 2 Roman mosaics.

The stunning Mona Lisa of Galilee was unearthed from the ancient city of Sepphoris, an ancient town  grown between the 1st cent. BC and the 7th century to become a thriving administrative, commercial and religious center with a diverse, multi-ethnic and multi-religious population of some 30,000 living in relatively peaceful coexistence.

 

The Mona Lisa of Galilee

 

Her enigmatic smile can presently be admired in the antic town of Zippori on the Triclinium floor of the Roman Villa.

I stumbled on the "Mosaique au buste feminin" - Female Torso mosaic - browsing the Internet for Roman mosaic portraits, and she immediately reminded me of someone...

 

This gorgeous piece had been auctioned by a French Art Dealer for the modest price of 5,500.00 Euros.

 

 

Mosaique au buste feminin.

Although obviously the two pieces are not of the same aesthetic quality, the resemblance is stunning. This beauty cannot possibly be a copy made from memory. Either she was laid from a drawing made after the first piece, or the drawing used to lay her was a copy of the drawing used to lay the first piece.

Unfortunately, we do not know the provenance of this mosaic. My attempts at contacting the auctioneer were not successful. The catalog lists her as "ca 4th century AD", which would make both mosaics contemporary. 

Now, why would a modern mosaic artist care for this kind of things ? Well, maybe for the same reasons why Renaissance masters cared for Roman Art...

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@mosaicblues.com 
or by phone at (334) 798 1639. 

You can also 

SUBSCRIBE to my

NEWSLETTER

Roman Mosaic Art - Andromeda & Perseus.

The Myth of Andromeda and Perseus has been the subject of numerous ancient and modern works of art, which typically show the moment when Perseus rescues her from the Monster Cetos.

Andromeda & Perseus - Fresco, Pompeii

When her mother Queen Cassiopeia  boasted that  Andromeda was more beautiful than the Nereids,  Poseidon sent the sea monster Cetus to ravage the coast of Ethiopia. An Oracle announced that to save his kingdom the King would have to sacrifice his daughter to the monster. And so Andromeda was chained naked to a rock on the coast.

Perseus, who was passing by on his way back from slaying Medusa came to rescue the Maiden. Sneaking upon Cetus under a cloak of invisibility, he killed him, set Andromeda free, and married her.

On this 3rd century mosaic from Gaziantep, Turkey, Perseus is still holding the head of Medusa slained earlier in the story. 

The names on the mosaics are written in Greek characters as People from that part of the empire were generally speaking Greek rather than latin. 

Mosaic borders were expertly used by Roman mosaicists to create the same effect wooden frames have on paintings. The relatively simple design of this one contrasts with the intricacies of the mythological scene and pulls our eyes and attention toward the main scene. 

Here is this pattern : 

Andromeda - Perseus Mosaic border pattern.

I am currently building a library of Roman Mosaic borders to be used in modern mosaics. 

Meander border on Carola Quinta Mosaic (Work in Progress)

Would you be interested in using some of those patterns for your own art ? Please 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

La Mosaique des Colombes d'Hadrien.

Read in English

La mosaïque aux Colombes fut découverte lors des fouilles de la villa d’Hadrien en 1737.

Mosaïque des colombes découverte en 1737 a Tivoli.

Alors que certains experts pensent que cette beauté est en fait la célèbre mosaïque des Colombes réalisée par le célèbre Sosus de Pergame au 2ème siècle av. J.-C. et mentionnée par Pline dans son Histoire Naturelle, d'autres la croient être une copie exécutée pour Hadrien au 2eme siècle de notre ère.

De très nombreuses copies de cette mosaïque furent créées tant durant l’antiquité qu'a l’époque moderne. D'antiques copies ont été retrouvées a Delos, Pompeii, Capoue ..

Mosaïque aux Colombes de Pompéi, 1er siècle

Dans des mausolées Chrétiens tels celui de Constance a Rome ou celui de Galla Placidia a Ravenne.

Mosaïque aux colombes ornée de svastiskas, Malte, 1er siècle

Mosaïque aux colombes d'Ostie, 1er siècle.

Mausolée de Galla Placidia, 5eme siècle

Pour moi, la plus belle d'entre elles est l'emblema découverte dans la villa d'Hadrien. Elle est composée de milliers de très petites tesselles de 2 a 3 mm de cote, une technique nommée opus vermiculatum, la plus sophistiquée de toutes les techniques d'assemblage de mosaïques. Un Fragment du cadre de cette mosaïque est expose au Musee d'Arles Antique cet été. 
 

Fragment de la bordure de la mosaique des Colombes

Les tesselles utilisées pour réaliser ce cadre mesurent au plus 3 mm de cote. On réservait généralement ce type de tesselles pour les pièces centrales - Emblema - et on utilisait des tesselles de tailles supérieures pour réaliser les bordures en Opus Tessellatum. Hadrien était un protecteur des Arts. Ce type de chef d’œuvre n’était produit que dans un petit nombre d'ateliers hautement spécialises de l'Empire. 

Toutes ces variations sur un même thème nous donnent une autre indication de la manière dont les anciens musivarii travaillaient. Je suis persuade qu'ils disposaient de livres ou rouleaux de modèles a montrer aux architectes et clients pour qu'ils fassent leur choix. Dans certains cas, plusieurs thèmes pouvaient être utilises au sein d'une même mosaïque. J’écrirais plus longuement une autre fois au sujet du perroquet que vous pouvez voir dans le coin inférieur droit de la mosaïque d'Ostie. 

L'une des raisons pour laquelle je visite tous ces musées et sites archéologiques Européens est que je suis en train de composer une collection de motifs géométriques utilises par les mosaïstes Romains. 

Exemple de motif cree dans ma collection.

Tout cela prend pas mal de temps car certains d'entre eux sont forts complexes... Ils sont toutefois magnifiques et apportent a la pièce centrale qu'ils bordent la profondeur et l’intensité qu'un cadre flamboyant peut apporter a une peinture. 

 Je suis un mosaïste Français 

vivant a Headland en Alabama 

dans le Sud des Etats Unis. 

J'aime inspirer les gens. 

Vous pouvez voir mon travail a www.mosaicblues.com 

Vous pouvez me contacter 

par téléphone au (334) 798 1639 

ou par e-mail a  

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com 

Vous pouvez aussi vous abonner 

a ma lettre d'information  

MosaicBluesNewsletter

Mosaic Art - Portrait of a German Shepherd.

Here is an other example of a gorgeous opus pixellatum mosaic pet portrait.

Amy Galbavy is the owner of Sassy Glass on line. We met last April in Atlanta where I was teaching a class on Opus Pixellatum Mosaic Portraits.

Amy and her eyes mosaic portrait.

After the class, Amy asked me to realize for her models for 3 mosaics, One of her beautiful daughter and two of her late German Shepherds who had passed not long before that.

She sent me pictures of them and I got in my design mode.

Jet was her male Shepherd.

Jet, Male German Shepherd

From this picture I created 3 different grayscale models and eailed them to Amy so she would chose the one she best liked.

3 modes of pixellizations

Amy went for the top model. The mosaic was to be 16 x 16", realized with 8mm tiles (5/16"). 

I created the actual model and e-mailed it to Amy. 

First page of the model

Because she had decided to print it herself I had formatted the model to be printed on 8 standard letter size sheets (8.5 x 11").

The 8 pages model.

Although the model was realized in Grayscale, Amy used a Sepia scale of colors to realize her mosaic. 

The mosaic completed by Amy.

One of the beauties of this technique is that it allows for many variations from a same model. (See my article about Daniel Adams)

I will create for you a model of a mosaic of your pet as I did for Amy. This printed model comes with a list and quantities of the tiles needed and instructions to carry out the work. 

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 Mugen, Border Collie extraordinaire.

About 12 years ago, I fell in love with Tosca, my sister’s Border Collie !

Tosca in Saint Valery sur Somme, France.

About a year later, a friend of mine having located a breeder with puppies not to far from home,  I went there to look at them. I wanted a black and white female like Tosca. I ended up with a Red Male...

Mugen, 3 month old.

I named him Mugen – a Japanese words meaning Endless or Infinity.

A loving and cheerful companion, Mugen had an endless creativity. Life never was boring around him ! 

Mugen loved water and destroyed a few water hoses...

Extremely loving and sociable, he knew everyone in the neighborhood and everybody knew him, cooked for him, invited him to play, drive, spend the night and they would drive him home. I was just known as Mugen’s Dad...

Mugen, 5 years old

When Mugen accidentally died in 2014 I was heartbroken...

Since I have this year created several mosaic models of beloved pets for their owners, I decided to build a mosaic to celebrate Mugen’s memory, based on the above picture of him.

This is the picture I worked from :

Mugen's Eyes.

Using my Opus Pixellatum technique to realize this project, I created a model and had it printed.

Opus Pixellatum model for the Mugen Mosaic.

I installed the model under a sheet of transparent vinyl on a bench in my studio. 

The model under its vinyl sheet.

I cut a piece of fiberglass mesh to be glued on top of it (the dark rectangle on the bench above the model)

And started to glue my tesserae on top of the mesh. 

The Mugen Mosaic, first tesserae laid.

I first lay every other tesserae, because it helps the glue set faster, and also because it allows me to later use - if I decide to do so -  colors different from what is called by the model. This is one of the many variations allowed by Opus Pixellatum. 

Mugen Mosaic, 50 % of tesserae laid. 

At this stage, I have to lay the remaining tesserae, I will use some iridescent tiles in lieu of the regular ones to complete the piece. Once everything is set, I will remove the enmeshed mosaic from the model, glue it to its support, and grout it. That will happen in the next article...

Tiles used for this mosaic are 8 mm recycled glass tiles from Mosaic Art Supply

If you would like to build yourself a mosaic portrait of your pet, I will create a model of it from your picture. This printed model comes with a list and quantities of the tiles needed and instructions to carry out the work. 

Beside the fact that such mosaic will end up costing you a fraction of the cost of a regular piece, you will have the great joy and satisfaction of building yourself a faithful and long lasting portrait of the beloved creature who faithfully shares or shared your life ! 

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