La Mosaique des Colombes d'Hadrien.

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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

Recurring patterns in Ceramic and Mosaic Arts in the Antiquity.

A pattern is a particular way in which something is done or organized, or in which something happens.

What is fascinating about them is that patterns seem to perdure possibly forever, once they have been set. 

This glazed tile, dated 875 - 850 BC is part of the collections of the British Museum. It was excavated from royal palace of the Assyrian city of Nimrud, which was first destroyed at the end of the 7th century BC and again by islamist terrorists in 2015.

The tile depicts an Assyrian king, possibly Ashurnasirpal II who reigned during the early 9th century BC, accompanied by soldiers and attendants.

Now what really got my interest when I first saw this picture was not the representation of another victorious king, (They never seem to represent losers. I wonder why ?) but the rounded decorative pattern of the border below the King.

A thousand year later Roman mosaicists laid this beautiful mosaic of a boxing scene from the Aeneid on the floor of a Gallo-Roman Villa in Villelaure (France) .

Look at the Borders... 1000 years separate them...

If you watch close, history does nothing but repeat 
itself... 


I'll be traveling to Europe for 3 weeks to visit my family and explore and study several Roman mosaics in France and build up my library of borders.  Stay tuned !

Frederic Lecut is a French mosaicist.

In 1992 he made Alabama his home.

His Art is about inspiring People.

You can contact him either 

by phone at (334) 798 1639 or email at 

frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

You can also subscribe to his

MosaicBlues Newsletter

Custom Mosaic Models

Lisez cet article en Francais

Have you ever been tempted to give a try at mosaic art but felt overwhelmed by the apparent complexity of the task ? 

Martelina and tagliolo, traditional tools of mosaic artists for 2500 years.

I created in 2015 a new and easy to implement mosaic technique. I named it “Opus Pixellatum”.
  

Opus Pixellatum is the perfect introductory technique to mosaic art. Because at the beginning this technique only uses square tiles of the same dimensions, disposed in horizontal and vertical lines, no cuts are needed. You simply have to glue your tiles on a model, fill the gap between them, and voila, your mosaic is complete.

How does this work ?

You send me a picture of what you would like to represent in mosaic. 

Cheetah cub from Serengeti Desert.

From your picture, I create a model. This model looks like a spreadsheet. 

The laminated model on the bench

It is composed of many little squares with numbers in it.

The lower left corner of the model of Cheetah cub mosaic .

Each number corresponds to a specific tile color. I also provide the quantities you’ll need of each tile. 

Cheetah Cub Mosaic tiles
Tile reference	Number of tiles
1	100
26	250
27	300
29	100
32	100
42	1400
43	200
44	860
46	454
47	200
49	300
62	1206
65	100
66	1089
69	450
95	100
96	150
104	250
108	100
109	286

The references are those of the 8 mm glass tiles from Mosaicartsupply in Atlanta, GA.

You can order the tiles from Mosaic Art Supply or I can order them for you.


If you wish to use different tiles, I can design a model based on your own colors.




Once you have your model and tiles, you can go to work.

Lay your model on your working bench and start gluing your tiles on it. You can use any water soluble glue such as Elmer’s glue.

Cheetah cub mosaic on its first day.

On this particular Cheetah mosaic, I was working in reverse method, gluing my tiles upside down on top of my laminated model.

To work in direct method, you will set a piece of fiberglass mesh on top of your laminated model and glue your tiles on this mesh. 

Amy's eyes mosaic portrait. half the tiles laid on mesh.

After a while, your mosaic is ready to mount on a rigid frame.

Cheetah cub mosaic, all tiles laid.

If you worked reverse method as I did this Cheetah mosaic, you will glue the support on top of it. 

Cheetah cub mosaic with its support glued on its top.

If you worked direct method, you will simply lift  the mesh from the laminated model and glue it on top of its support. 

Daniel's eyes mosaic has just been glued onto its support.

Once your mosaic is set on its support – a few hours in direct method, 48 hours in reverse method – you can grout and finish it.

The Author beside the completed Cheetah cub mosaic portrait.

Cheetah Cub above was realized in colors, whereas Amy's eyes below were built in Grayscale. 

The model and the mosaic !

From a same model, many, many variations are possible. You can change the palette of colors from Gray scale to Sepia, Blue scale, or inverted Gray scale. You can also chose to realize parts of the mosaic in regular Opus Tessellatum – the classical Roman or Greek Technique. 

Opus Pixellatum is an amazingly versatile technique. It starts as “mosaic by number” and later allows you an infinity of variations. The great beauty of this technique is that it allows a total beginner to realize a very beautiful first piece ! 

Students of the April 2017 Mosaic Fiesta Seminar in Atlanta, GA.

In a next article I’ll share with you some amazing mosaics made by some of my students and clients. 

If you would like to create your own mosaic based on your own picture or design, please contact me at (334) 798 1639 or frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

I am a French Mosaic Artist.

in 1992, Alabama became my home

My Art is about inspiring people.

You can also subscribe to my  

MOSAIC 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

Mosaic Chicks - Back-up Sound Artists.

Today I'd like to introduce my Mosaic Chicks...

You may not have heard about them, but you very likely heard them, they are my back-up sound assistants. They live behind my Alabama Studio... 

Here come the amazing ...

 

You heard them in the background of many videos, they live in 3 pens behind the studio, further back a wide open field planted with mulberry trees extends to a small creek.

Every day, I open one of the pens so the mighty chicks can go forage for bugs and seeds, they do a pretty good job at cleaning up everything.

I was raised in a French village close to the coast. There were cows in the pasture across the road, and vegetable gardens behind ! We all raised chickens and rabbits for the eggs and meat. I can't bring myself to kill an animal anymore, but I sure enjoy the eggs !

As for my Mosaic Work, I plan to grout 3 opus Pixellatum pieces this coming week end (2 Carolas and a Cheetah Cub), and am presently working on my Carola Quinta, an experiment in Mosaic Transparency... I'll tell you later about that ! 

Carola Quinta, first layer laid.

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

Cheetah Cub - An experiment in Mosaic Art

Yesterday I unveiled my first colored designed Opus Pixellatum Mosaic. 

For the past 18 month, I have been creating patterns for my mosaics and other people's mosaics from a 7 tones grayscale palette.

Mosaic portrait of a Yezidi female fighter.

I have also been researching a way to create patterns from wider palettes.

Original picture of the Cheetah Cub

Cheetah Cub is my first experiment of this type. I designed the model based on the 64 colors of Mosaic Art Supply recycled glass Elementile line.

TA DA ! Cheetah Mosaic just revealed.

Although I still need to cleanup the glue, grout and frame the piece - I will keep posting on this process for I now have a secret weapon to clean up this pesky glue ! - I wanted to give you a peak at the beauty of this dramatic technique.

In this short video I am sharing the moment I flip the mosaic built upside down in reverse method how I spray it to reveal the brightness of the tiles. 

Would you like to create your own mosaic from one of your pictures ? 

I will create the model for you, with a list of references and quantities of tiles 

you'll need to build it.

You can contact me by email at frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com 

or by phone at (334) 798 1639.

I am a French mosaic artist established in Alabama. In 2015 I created a new dramatic mosaic technique. 

I named it Opus Pixellatum.

I am now sharing it with

fellow mosaicists.

 You can subscribe to my   

Mosaic Newsletter

Opus Mixtum

Opus Mixtum is an experimental piece including 2 different laying techniques.

• Opus Tessellatum was used in most classical Roman mosaics.
• I created Opus Pixellatum in 2015 to build my series of Yezidi Eyes.

On this video taped in early October 2016 the Tessalatum work (in greens and blues) is complete and half the Pixellatum tiles are laid.

Opux Mixtum est une pièce expérimentale qui utilise deux méthodes de pose  différentes.

• Opus Tessellatum est la méthode principalement utilisée dans les mosaïques Romaines classiques.
• Opus Pixellatum est la méthode que j'ai mise au point en 2015 pour ma série des Yeux des Yézidis. 

Sur cette vidéo enregistrée début octobre 2016, la partie tessellatum est terminée, et 50 % de la partie pixellatum a été installée.

 

I am a French mosaic artist based in Alabama. My Art is about Inspiration. 

I am presently working on several huge mosaic portraits of the eyes of inspiring people, and on several community projects.

If you are interested by 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

Je suis un Artiste Mosaïste installe en Alabama. Le but de mon Art c'est d'inspirer.

Présentement, je travaille a de grands portraits des Yeux de personnes dignes d'admiration, ainsi qu'a plusieurs projets de mosaiques communautaires

Si mon travail vous intéresse vous pouvez me contacter par téléphone au 334 798 1639 (aux Etats Unis), ou par email a frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

 

Vous pouvez aussi souscrire a ma Lettre d'Information