Nothing comes from nowhere...

I have finished today my new piece - Cleavage
Here it is:

And here is a detail:

As you see it is an abstract, no need to convince you about that.

Hmmm... is it really?

This piece is based on a tiny sketch which I did in my sketch book. here:

But... this is not when it all began.

I had this plywood and thought that its proportions are great for a woman's cleavage, showing the opening of the zipper with the shape of the breast. So I sketched it on a piece of paper, but something really made me make it an abstract...

Simple Love

A year or two ago I sketched this couple and then put it aside. I thought that I'd probably paint it over and do something else. Then, I really painted over it with white acrylic, but the paints I used (maybe it was markers, I can't remember) would not disappear...

Luckily!!!

I was drawn now to mosaic them. I love the tranquility, the calmness of loving and being loved.

30x30 cm (12"x12"). Mainly vitreous tiles.

Mirror Mirror

This is my latest piece. I have decided to work on ellipse plywood which I've had in my studio for a long time, because it looks like a traditional mirror. I created a duality in which we sort of looking in the mirror on the lady who is looking in the mirror.

The piece is based on a photo I took earlier this year of model. She was by far the best model I have ever painted. Her ability to sit for long periods without resting and moving was impressive.

And then I started to sign my works...

Something weird is definitely happening to me with my mosaic works.

I, and everyone around me, got already used to my addiction to mosaicing. Though with this addiction I have less and less people around me...

Then one day I started to frame my works. Okay, I am used to that also (I always felt the works shouldn't be framed, or should I say, I had always felt so...).

But now I started to sign them. Is it really me? Well, the signature is definitely mine, so it must be me.

For the first time...

For the first time in my mosaic experience I ran out of materials without even noticing it :-(
I never buy exactly what I need, I just buy loads of materials that I like knowing that one day I'll use them. I like just to have everything and more than enough so I don't have any limits. Part of the life of an artist who can't plan in advance.
I am going tomorrow to Vallauris (pottery village in southern France) to look for black unglazed ceramic tiles. I really want to finish my new piece by Thursday before we leave for our vacation (oh, yes, va-ca-sh-on... lol, we are following the sun for a few days).

I think I am loosing it...

I think I'm loosing my sanity... In art sometimes it's a good thing, I think...
The other day I saw on my husband's laptop a wonderful painted portrait in blues. As I was not sitting directly in front of the monitor I leaned closer to the screen to find out who was the artist. What I discovered was funny - it was a map displaying the area between west Europe and the East cost of the US and Canada. I am probably becoming delusional...
Anyway, after I managed to stop laughing I drew quickly the image I saw before it faded away.
Here it is:


I couldn't wait to start mosaicing it. I thought about doing it with marble and natural colors but by the time I finished the face it looked like fur instead of skin. The marble had too many shades in it. So I restarted the whole piece. I am planning to have it 50x60 cm (20"x24"). Here it is:

Big Skies - a tribute to Chagall

On June 09 I have received an email from Julie Stedman, a mosaic artist and the owner of Opus Gallery in Exeter UK, announcing a group exhibition to be open on November 09 inspired by Marc Chagall. I have done some research on the internet and in the Chagall museum in Nice, France. Inspired by Chagall's paintings and 2 of his mosaics - The Four Season in Chicago and The Zodiac in Nice, combined by inspiration from my own past art, I have created Big Skies -

Here are Chagall's works that inspired me:
(The Four Season - detail, The Zodiac - detail, Le Marchand de bestiaux - detail)

And here are my works that inspired me:
(Flying - acrylic on canvas, 1998 ; Big Happiness - 2009 ; Big Steps - 2009)