Mosaic Worshop at the Red House

Amanda McGuire's Red House Residence mosaic.

 

Two weeks ago I returned to the Red House in Bath County to take part in the workshop offered by the then-current resident artist Anne Atkins, a master in mosaics. Anne is from the Richmond area, and I met her through the Chickahominy Colored Pencil Artists (CCPA) group. I wasn't sure exactly at what time the workshop was starting, so I left my house early in the morning for the two and a half hour drive there. 

It was very foggy when I left, I could only see about 50 feet in front of me while moseying out of my neighborhood. As I sped out onto I-66 and then south on I-81 the fog gradually cleared, and somewhere before reaching Harrisonburg, the sun broke through the clouds for dramatic glimpses of our valley and its mountains with wisps of fog. 

 

Anne (standing) preparing for the workshop.

By the time I got there it was 10:30 AM and sunny. As it turned out, the workshop didn't start until 1:00 PM, so I had a chance to visit with Judy, the artist who helps Amanda with the artist residency, as well as Anne. Anne's old pit bull Sumac kept her company during her stay at the Red House, and she'd also brought her three lovely pet painted finches.

The workshop was held in the roofed shed next to the Red House; Amanda had set up another tent next to it so we could spread out and have plenty of room to work--the day was very warm and an electric fan kept us cool.

 

Anne with students.

Anne answers questions.

Anne had all the materials organized: different colors and sizes of mosaic tiles (both ceramic and vitreous), glass, and broken shards of pottery in zip-lock bags, 8"x 8" plywood panels for the supports, small plastic bottles filled with glue, tile cutters and files for each student and a styrofoam tray to sort our tiles and apply the glue, everything was so well planned!

There were seven of us there, and a few of us already had an idea of what we wanted to create, while others improvised, inspired by the assortment of colors and textures. We settled down to our work while chatting, and the afternoon just flew by. In the middle of the afternoon it started to rain lightly, but under the tent, everyone stayed dry and kept on working until the rain eventually tapered off.

We didn't have time to get into the grouting portion of the workshop, since only a few of us had finished gluing the pieces to our substrate, myself included--I particularly loved including a few of Judy's colored pencil stumps for the stem of my flower. One always wonders what to do with these stumps of colored pencils, it seems like such a shame to throw them out when they become too short to be usable.

We had so much fun! It can be tricky, trying to fit these small pieces of tile, glass or found objects the way one would fit a jigsaw puzzle, but it sure can be addicting! Take a look at some of the pieces created during the workshop--each one is so original!

 

Judy's "picassette" style mosaic with costume jewelry and beach glass.

Nell's flower and bee mosaic (in progress)

Amy's crab mosaic (in progress)

My ruby-throated hummingbird mosaic (in progress).

  

Most of the participants left right at 4 o'clock, and I wasn't able to photograph everyone's piece. I stayed a bit longer trying to get my piece as far along as I could but there wasn't enough time to finish it, so Anne was very kind to let me take the cutters and materials home to try to finish my piece here.

There weren't enough vitreous white tiles to finish the background, but I visited the website Anne had recommended and purchased a small package of those, and one of assorted tile colors, hoping to create more mosaics later on. My ruby-throated hummingbird with cardinal flower mosaic is now complete, and ready to grout.

 

Ruby-throated hummingbird and cardinal flower mosaic.