Carole's Eyes Series

Every morning begins with the animals, group hug with Tomoe and Itto.

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Then we go together feed the chickens (the ones you hear in my videos) and pick up the eggs. 

As I have to walk through my studio to get to the chickens coops, I generally stop for a while to lay a few tesserae...

I'm presently working on an other pair of eyes. The same eyes, with variations, Variations on Carole's eyes !  I realized I like working on series; you take a design, a beautiful one, and then you create several pieces based on it to express different feelings, moods, or ideas. 

 

I completed the first Carole's Eyes last December, but it fell from its wall while I was gone and got damaged. This kind of stupid things happen, it was my fault. I am restoring her now, she will look just as good as before. She'll look great, the greatest ever, believe me...

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Blue Carole, the second of this series, is almost complete, I still have to grout and frame her. She will be there by the end of the month...

And presently, I am working on 2 more variations. I played with colors, and added borders to them, the same kind of borders the Romans loved to use.  Why do you think I'm traveling all around the countries that were once part of the Roman Empire ?

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This is Greek Carole Sepia. On the bench. I am building her reverse method like I do 98 % of my pieces. She is a mix of Opus Pixellatum and Opus Tessellatum. 

The frame is a very important enhancement for a painting. It attracts and focus the eyes of the amateur. Unfortunately you cannot frame a mosaic with a painting kind of frame. For the past 4 years I have been using 3/16" steel welded frames. They are an excellent way to structurally reinforce my mosaics, but aesthetically they bring nothing like a frame does to a painting. So I decided to follow the Masters by incorporating the frame in the mosaic itself !

Fish mosaic from Pompeii, 1st century AD

So here you have the model of Greek Carole Sepia...

And here is a Bluesier Carole. The original idea, it will be different. Opus Pixellatum allows me to improvise, and I am going to fully take advantage of this fantastic opportunity.

This one will incorporate more vegetal patterns, Acanthus leaves, possibly  wisteria cascades...

I am currently experimenting with layered models. Instead of creating one very complicated model I create several of them and use them as layers, just like you can in a program create an image by combining several graphic layers. Some layers pixellatum, some tessellatum...

So you see, I am very inspired by modern technology to realize my pieces. 

• The theme or subject is always shrouded in a mysterious aura !  What's behind the Eyes? What's behind the Mirror of the Soul ? What's behind the Scouts of the Heart ? 
• The Aesthetic is enhanced by 2nd century AD border patterns and ,
• Techniques based on 21st century graphic softwares allow for a dreamatic new type of mosaics. (Yes, "dreamatic", it's new, its great, it's dreamlike, it's dreamatic ! believe me...)
•  

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

NEWSLETTER

Pan !

A few times a year I work on commission for collectors. In a custom mosaic, the collector has the original inspiration and is often involved in the design. We work together. It is a very pleasant experience, I thoroughly enjoy the discussion and sharing involved. We get to better know each other, beyond the mosaic itself, we build a relationship.

I have known Liz and Marty for several years. Marty always surprises her with fancy presents. For this Christmas, Liz wanted something really cool, special and original for him. And so last October she asked me if I would - secretly - make a custom mosaic for him !  

Pan and Syrinx (1617-19) - by Pierre Paul Rubens

She had her mind set on the Roman God Pan, whose wild and creative personality Marty had always enjoyed.

Liz was looking for a mosaic in the Classical Roman style.

Pan and Amadryad - Pompeii

We went through a few possible designs. I was inspired by the delicate but powerful hues of this gorgeous Roman piece.

And Liz and I finally decided I would work from a modern rendering of a medieval interpretation of the horny God.

This part of the commission work - the communication between artist and collector - is an very important and pleasant part of the process. It is primordial to get a good fit. I try to understand the collector's personality, her motivation and taste to propose her something that really meets her needs and/or her lifestyle. 

Once we'd agreed on the principle of the design, I actually went to work.

First I had to create a model. I decided for a wide traditional border. Borders act like the frame of a painting, they focus the eyes of the observer toward the main subject - the Emblemata - at he center of the mosaic. Roman Musivarii used this kind of adornment on all their pieces. 

Pan being - among other things - a god of forests and trees, I chose to use a Laurel Leaves border. 

As for the background I drew my inspiration from the arabesques of Gustav Klimt's Tree of Life mosaic. 

And so I laid the model on the bench and went to work on October 14 !

October 14, the begining !

I kept Liz posted of the progress with pictures, videos, details about the piece, so she'd get an idea of what was happening...

November 2nd

And she had a peak at the creative process

Detail of the border

   
On November 9, I had laid all the Tesserae.

I pre-grouted the piece...

And on November 15, Liz came to Mosaicblues studio in Headland to flip her mosaic !

Now the flipping of a reverse method mosaic is a very moving time, because you actualy see your mosaic for the first time, and so people love this, it is, like the first time a beautiful woman undresses, a unique and dramatic moment.

After the flipping I had to clean up the glue, apply the grout, waterproof it and frame the piece.

Pan, November 24, 2016

And on Christmas Day, Marty discovered his Buddy Pan !

 

Pan & Marty, Dec 25, 2016

 
  

Custom mosaics are often presented for Mother's Days, Birthdays or Anniversaries. They make dramatic and outstanding presents.

It takes usually 2 to 3 months between the time a collector contacts me and the completion of a mosaic; and I can only create a few of these pieces every year. 

So if you’re interested to offer a custom mosaic, please contact me way ahead of  the date you might want it either by phone at (334) 798 1639 or 

by email at frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

Frederic Lecut is a French mosaicist.

In 1992 he made Alabama his home.

His Art is about inspiring People.

 

 

To keep in touch with him, 

please subscribe to his 

NEWSLETTER

 

Opus Pixellatum - Une Partition pour Mosaïques !

Read in English

J'ai inventé Opus Pixellatum en 2015, car j'avais besoin de construire rapidement une série de grands portraits en mosaïque des yeux de réfugiés yézidis.

Yezidi 37

Le principe d'Opus Pixellatum est simple. À partir d'une image originale, je dessine et imprime un réseau de lignes verticales et horizontales. Ces lignes définissent des cellules carrées.

  

Détail du modèle Yezidi 36

A l’intérieur de chaque cellule est imprimé un numéro correspondant à une couleur. J'utilise généralement 7 couleurs de blanc à noir. Donc les numéros progressent de 1 à 7.

Modèle de Yezidi 36.

Je monte la mosaïque en collant à l'intérieur de chaque cellule la tesselle correspondant à son numéro.

Détail de Yézidi 36, en cours de réalisation

 

A ce niveau la, Opus Pixellatum semblerait n'être rien de plus qu'un système de «Mosaique par numéro». Rien de vraiment excitant... 

Et puis, d'un seul coup, j'ai eu un petit déclic !

En construisant ma série d'yeux de Yezidi, alors que pour des raisons de temps de séchage de colle, je ne montais qu'une sur deux de mes tesselles, je réalisai soudain que cette technique avait beaucoup plus de potentiel que je ne l'avais initialement envisagé.

Pour commencer, il n'est pas nécessaire de poser toutes les tesselles pour commencer à voir l'image que vous essayez de créer ...

Yezidi 20, seulement la moitié des tesselles sont posées.

Et donc cela allait me permettre d'utiliser des couleurs supplémentaires, différentes des 7 initialement définies. J'ai utilisé cela sur la mosaique Yezidi 37.

Détail de l'oeil de Yézidi 37

Puis, une fois terminée ma série Yézidi, j'ai décidé d'expérimenter l'utilisation conjointe des deux techniques Opus Pixellatum et Tessellatum sur la même pièce. Ce qui nous a donné Carole's Eyes.

Carole's Eyes - Decembre 2016

Ayant achevé Carole's Eyes, j'ai créé - sur la base du même modèle - Blue Carole, dans laquelle j'ai remplacé toutes les nuances de Gris par des nuances de Bleu. Le résultat ici encore, est très intéressant ...

 

Blue Carole sur l’établi - le 12 décembre 2016.

Opus Pixellatum est en fait une méthode totalement nouvelle d'aborder le design et la pose des mosaïques. Cette technique fournit effectivement un modèle pour la monte de la mosaïque par l'artisan qui peut choisir de suivre ce modeler soit de façon très fidèle, soit d'une tacon beaucoup plus lâche qui lui permettra d'exprimer sa créativité d'une manière beaucoup plus improvisée!

Vous pourriez en fait comparer le modèle Opus Pixellatum à une partition de musique. Si vous êtes un débutant, vous essayez de la jouer exactement comme écrit par l'auteur. Mais si vous êtes bon musicien, alors vous pouvez vous permettre d'improviser et d’interpréter, ce que l'auteur aurait probablement voulu que vous fassiez!

C'est vraiment trop cool !

En 2017, je vais continuer a expérimenter pour essayer de cerner les différentes manières d'utiliser Opus Pixellatum pour permettre une plus grande créativité en mosaïque. Je vais également commencer d'enseigner l'utilisation de cette méthode a quelques stagiaires. Je vous tiendrai au courant sur ce Blog.

Gardez le contact !

 



 

Je suis un Mosaiciste français installe en Alabama
  Je vous invite a visiter mon site mosaicblues.com

Vous pouvez me contacter soit par telephone au 001 (334) 798 1639, soit par courriel a frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com

  Vous pouvez également souscrire a ma Niouzeletter

(gratuite)

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

 

You can also subscribe to my NEWSLETTER