Light and Mood - a new project

Continuing my mosaic journey in stone, I want to do something entirely different. Luke was a lot of fun to execute. I learned a lot by reproducing a Byzantine mosaic using marble. But this time I want to do something a bit more personal, creative, and less confined by the classical rules of mosaic making.

During the last few months, I've only worked on tessalated mosaics that implement representational designs. Luke is a good example. Mosaic is the original pixel art form - individual pieces of colored material working together to make a larger image. Because of this, many mosaic images appear to be cartoonish in nature. There's nothing wrong with this. After all, the underlying design which we work from is called a cartoon. But I'd like to experiment with a non-cartoonish design for this project.

I admire people who can do abstract work. They see color and design in a way which I have difficulty doing (so far). They push mosaic into new territory and seem to have fun in playing with materials in new ways. I also love natural stone's palette of color; it's so earthy (of course!). And the range of tonal colors within each stone is amazing.

So for my next project, I want to do something a bit more abstract in which I can experiment with color - particularly color blending.

I have two sources of inspiration for this project.

First - I've been corresponding a lot lately with my mosaic buddies, Karen Sasine and Barbara Peacock. They are planning a trip to Italy this fall to take the Orsoni class and are picking my brain about things to do while in Venice. This made me go back and look at the hundreds of photos I've taken of Venice. These three caught my attention:

San Giorgio Maggiore

Santa Maria della Salute

Grand Canal

There's something about the light in Venice - even on overcast days. And there's something magic about the silhouettes of San Giorgio Maggiore and Santa Maria della Salute which has appealed to artists for centuries. Although they are human creations, they seem to be somehow imprinted in our DNA.

Second - my favorite artist (by far) is JMW Turner (1775-1851). He's called a "painter of light" - perhaps a cliche, but it does describe his revolutionary work. Here are a few of his Venice scenes.

San Giorgio Maggiore

Santa Maria della Salute

Grand Canal

It's hard to imagine that Turner painted these pieces at the end of his career when the likes of Monet and others were still running around in diapers. There's a lot of drama in his work, but these express more tranquility and mystery. Time and space are suspended in a wash of light, color, and mood.

My project is an attempt to capture this feel by using stone in mosaic. On the surface it seems like a study in contrasts. Stone is solid and far from being ethereal and mosaic is mostly about movement. This is the challenge.

The subject is a silhouette San Giorgio Maggiore against the Venetian lagoon and sky. I am using marble cut into small pieces varying in length. I am using the raw, cut part of the stone, gluing them directly onto a 14" x 12" substrate in a rough 3-d fashion. My goal is to create a subtle blending of colors with enough differentiation for the sky, land/buildings, and water.

I'll talk about the colors I'm using in later posts. For now, here's my marble soup:

I cut up pieces and mix them together so that when I work on a section I get plenty of variation in the stone that I'm using. The soup changes as I gradually work from one section to another in the piece by adding - or removing - more or less of a particular color.

All I have is a primitive sketch of San Giorgio Maggiore.

And here's what I've done so far. No movement - no andamento (except for maybe the outline of the dome and campanile) I'm still a bit up in the air about the sky, but I expect that it will have the yellow and rose colors which Turner uses so masterfully.

One last thing about Turner: the Tate in London has the premier collection of Turner's paintings and watercolors. Their website has an extensive listing with thumbnail images of his works.