Halloween House

2018 has been a crazy busy year. I spent most of the year just trying to survive my day job on a day by day basis. As you can imagine, this is not emotionally fulfilling and is not healthy in a variety of way. No more I say. I'm going to make some changes. I am going to build in some me time including time to exercise, time to relax and time for a little art. Speaking of art, a friend asked me the other day how my mosaic art is going. I had to explain that I haven't worked a single piece in the last year. How sad is that. So here you go. I have actually completed a mosaic piece in 2018. With the Halloween season coming up, I decided to do something with a Halloween theme. As always, step 1 is a rough sketch.

Next up, I refined the sketch, added a little color and transferred the sketch to a frame.

Next, I started cutting a gluing the glass mosaic tiles. I start with the prominent features.

After the fore features are complete, I start with the background.

Then it is just a matter of cutting and gluing and cutting and gluing.

After all of the cutting and gluing, I finished the mosaic with a black grout.

And finally, here is the mosaic from the side. Happy Halloween everyone!

Farm Living 2

Today's mosaic is a simple little farm scene. I was flipping through some of my previous pieces and saw a farm that I had done soon after I started doing mosaic art. It was OK, but I thought I could improve upon my previous effort. As always, I started with a sketch.

The comes the cutting and gluing. Lots of cutting and gluing. My estimation is that this piece contains about 600 individually cut pieces of glass. That is a lot of tiny pieces of glass.

Here is a closeup of the barn. It contains 71 pieces of glass in case you were counting.

And here is a closeup of the horse.

And here is the final piece. I used white grout in the original. For the remake, I used gray grout. It is a little more neutral and lets the colors speak for themselves.

And here is the piece from the side. As has become my technique, I wrapped the tile around the sides of the frame.

Sunset Trees

If you've followed my art, you are probably saying, "Why is he doing another tree mosaic?" My answer is, "I can't help myself." I just like trees. They make me happy. One of the first pieces that I did was called Moon Tree. You can check it out here.

The other thing I notices about this piece is that there are no straight lines. Here is one of the thing's that I've learned about mosaic art. Straight lines are easy. This piece was the opposite of easy. Every piece of glass had to be hand cut to fit in all the crazy nooks and crannies.

Here is the finished piece.

Here is the finished piece from the side.

Frog

Today's mosaic is a just a simple little frog hanging out in a pond. I was inspired to do this piece based on a trip we took this year to the Poconos in Pennsylvania. We rented a cabin that was next to a frog pond. There were literally hundreds of frogs in this pond and they talked to us around the clock.

This is not the first time that I did a frog piece. Here is one that I did back in 2014. 

To start the project, I did a bunch of frog sketches. I tried to keep it simple. I love mosaic art, but you have to keep it simple. The mosaic media just does not lend itself to a lot of details.

After I was satisfied with the sketch, I transferred the drawing to a mosaic frame and began cutting and gluing.

This is the completed piece. 

This is the completed piece from the side.

Mountain Reflections

Today's mosaic is called mountain reflections. I was inspired to make this mosaic based on the following photograph. The contrast of the blue sky, gray snow covered mountains and green pine trees just grabbed me.

My usual mosaic size is 1 foot by 1 foot. There was so much going on in this picture though that I decided to do a 2 foot by 2 foot mosaic. After sketching the drawing on the frame I started the cutting and gluing.

The most challenging aspect of this piece was creating a credible mirror reflection of the top half of the mosaic. It turned out to be harder than I was expecting.

The effort was worth it in the end.

And here is a photo of me with the final product to give you a perspective of the size of this piece.

Mountain Fun Facts (Source: http://primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/mountains/facts.htm)

Mountains make up about one-fifth of the world's landscape, and provide homes to at least one-tenth of the world's people.

Heights of mountains are generally given as heights above sea level.

The world's highest peak on land is Mount Everest in the Himalayas. It is 8,850.1728 m (29,036 ft) tall.

Ben Nevis is also the highest mountain in Great Britain.

The tallest known mountain in the solar system is Olympus Mons, located on Mars.

There are mountains under the surface of the sea!

Mountains occur more often in oceans than on land; some islands are the peaks of mountains coming out of the water.

About 80 per cent of our planet's fresh water originates in the mountains.

All mountain ecosystems have one major characteristic in common - rapid changes in altitude, climate, soil, and vegetation over very short distances.

Plants that may be found on mountains include conifers, oak, chestnut, maple, junipers, stonecrops, campions, mosses, ferns and climbers.

The highest 14 mountains in the world are all found in the Himalayas

In some mountainous areas the rivers are permanently frozen.
These are called glaciers.

Parrot

Today's mosaic is a parrot. He started as a sketch.

And then he received a little color.

And then he was moved to a frame. And then I started cutting and gluing glass tiles.

Once the parrot was complete, he let me know that he wanted a nice little tropical rain forest to live in.

As I was grouting this piece, a nice little rain storm rolled in. I used rain water to mix the grout and clean up my tools. I thought is appropriate that a rain forest animal should be made with actual rain.

Before long the parrot was complete.

And here is a photo from the side.

And here is a photo of Mr. Parrot in the Jack Mast Mosaics Studio.

Parrot Fun Facts (Source: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals/parrot.html)

• There are around 372 different parrot species.
• Most parrots live in tropical areas.
• Parrots have curved bills (beaks), strong legs and clawed feet.
• Parrots are often brightly coloured.
• Parrots are believed to be one of the most intelligent bird species.
• Some species are known for imitating human voices.
• Most parrot species rely on seeds as food. Others may eat fruit, nectar, flowers or small insects.
• Parrots such as the budgerigar (budgie) and cockatiel are popular as pets.
• Some parrot species can live for over 80 years.
• There are 21 different species of cockatoo.
• Cockatoos usually have black, grey or white plumage (feathers).
• New Zealand is home to some very unique parrots including the kea, kaka and kakapo.
• Keas are large, intelligent parrots that live in alpine areas of New Zealand’s South Island. They are the world’s only alpine parrot and are known for their curious and sometimes cheeky behaviour near ski fields where they like to investigate bags, steal small items and damage cars.
• Kakapos are critically endangered flightless parrots, as of 2010 only around 130 are known to exist. They are active at night (nocturnal) and feed on a range of seeds, fruit, plants and pollen. Kakapos are also the world’s heaviest parrot.
• The flag of Dominica features the sisserou parrot.

My Studio Space

Here is my new and improved work space. Take a quick look while it is clean, because it likely won't stay that way for long. Art is messy.

I painted the walls with Sherwin Williams "Sporty Blue" (SW6522).

I also added a grid 2' x 6' grid wall panel to display the projects that I am working on. I use these same grid wall panels at art shows floor tower configuration. This time I used a wall mount. These panels are really handy when you rotate a lot of stock in different sizes and shapes. They are very flexible. You can find them at multiple stores online including Amazon.