The Luana Mosaic

Some things are meant to happen...

The Luana Mosaic was one of them 

It was the convergence of several streams.

• My love of "Primavera" a famous painting by Renaissance Master Alessandro Botticelli.

• A hard to shoot picture of a talented young musician. 

 

• The sponsorship of her Grandparents,  Art collectors who shared my admiration for Boticelli's painting. 

We decided to create a portrait of her inspired by Botticelli's Primavera. From the original painting and picture, I designed a first model. 

I laid the printed model on the bench of my Alabama shop in early September 2014 and started to work. 

Luana Mosaic, Sep 17, 2014.

You can see on this view that Luana was built on fiberglass Mesh. I had built Miriam's Eyes last june following the same technique. This allows transportation of the light part of the mosaic, without all the heavy materials used to complete it.

This way, I would be able fly to France with Luana and 2 other mosaics in my suitcase and finish them in my new French Studio.

Luana Mosaic, September 27.

25 and 35 different kinds of materials were used on this piece.

On October 8, all tesserae had been laid. 

Luana mosaic, October 8, 2014.

I lifted Luana from her model, and had my first look at what she would actually look at the end of her journey to France.

 

 

On October 30, with my Daughter Mathilde - herself a mosaic artist. Luana is ready to ship !

On december 17, I set up my new studio in Saint Valery sur Somme and applied thinset and support on top of Luana !

On December 21, I removed the Fiberglass mesh.

And on Christmas Eve, Luana, framed and shiny was ready...

to meet Santa Claus, and the actual Luana ! 

No heavy stones were mistreated or abused in the making of Luana. As I only used thin ceramic, glasses, smalti and mirrors and mounted her on a lighter type of panel than the US ones, Luana is lighter than the mosaics I made before her.

The Luana Mosaic : 

• Glass, Smalti, Mirror, Ceramic.
• Wooden Frame.
• Dimensions : 21 x 25 " (53 x 63 cm).
• Weight : 21 lb (9.5 kg).

Portraits make outstanding presents and mosaics last forever ! If you would like to discuss or commission a portrait, or any other type of mosaic, please call me at (334) 798 1639 or drop me an email at  frederic.lecut@gmail.com

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