'A New Approach'

This is my entry in the 2016 Hibiscus and Bays Art Awards exhibition, being held at the Estuary Arts Centre, Orewa. Below is a little more information about the piece.

When I first started this mosaic, towards the end of 2014, I thought I would title it ‘A New Exploration’. This does not relate to the flower in the picture so much but to my first exploration into a new way of creating mosaic artwork with round tiles. The design is from a print on canvas, which I chose to use for my first experimentation. However, the close up view of the flower with the layers of petals and the deep colouring do also give a sense of exploration.

After moving home and doing a number of smaller mosaic pieces in between, I finally completed this artwork in time to enter it for the Hibiscus and Bays Art Awards 2016. When I filled in the application form, I put ‘A New Approach’ down for the title, as I had forgotten what I was originally going to call the artwork. Once submitted, I could not change it.

Although there has been a slight change of name, this does not change the fact that this piece was the starting point for a new approach to my mosaic artwork. The use of different sized round mosaic tiles has now become my signature style.

This artwork is made up of around 7,000 handmade tiles. They are colour blended, cut and baked from polymer modelling clay. After gluing all the tiles in place, on the canvas, it has been grouted with coloured acrylic gel medium. It took well over 150 hours to complete.