Mosaics from The Ford

Mosaic art by Ian Laurie: Life through mosaic

Just hanging around…

Ian Laurie
2–3 minutes
The mythical god of change and rebirth, Kokopelli is believed to wander the lands, sounding his horn to signify change. In this mosaic, Kokopelli is central to the image. Behind him is a tree, but it is a tree of two halves: to the right of the image is a rising moon and beyond the moon is the galaxy of stars and colours of dark blues and blacks. The tree's branches on this side are bare and there is a layer of snow on the ground. Yet on the left, where Kokopelli has already walked, the tree is verdant and behind it is blue sky and an orange rising run. Two deer graze upon the green grass. The whole image is to signify rebirth: stillness into life; darkness into light.
Kokopelli: From darkness into life… (2024) Kokopelli sounds his horn, bringing life back into the landscape and signifying the change from the stillness of a winter’s night into the light and life of a summer’s day, where crows fly and deer graze. Size: H41cm x W65cm
Title: Shades of Green. A mosaic depicting a woman with blonde-red hair sitting at a table and looking at the viewer. She wears a red t-shirt. In the background is a fence and beyond that, a blue sky and green hills.
Shades of Green (2023)

Kokopelli, tree and Moon (2014) The lone figure of Kokopelli walks uphill toward a tree, playing his flute. The figure of Kokopelli is a Native American myth: he’s the bringer of change and a god of fertility, and sometimes even bringer of mischief. Kokopelli provides a facinating figure which I’ve made a couple of times and from which you can see the latest version above. But this one was my first!
Memories of Peru: Grazing Lima and a viewing platform wall (commission 2017)
Title: Sunspectacled Woman. A woman wearing large, round sunspecs gazes out from this picture, a blue sky behind her. Her hair is shades of red, contrasting with the sky. Her shoulders are just visible as are her necklace and vest straps.
Sunspectacled Woman (2015)
Brighton Rainbow: Celebrating Brighton Pride (2023) Brighton Rainbow features the coastline and shops as seen from the sea. The red shapes on the beach represent beach umbrellas while the skyline features a rainbow, replacing the sky completely. The sea contains an array of iridescent tesserae, reflecting light as sea waves do.
Memories of Peru: Machu Picchu, Condor & artwork (commission 2017) The two Memories of Peru pieces were amalgamations of photos the client had taken while on holiday in Peru. Hence the sky looks rather odd as skies go, even by my standards! Instead, I replaced the wonderful blue skies with this pattern the client came across and added the condor, which in the original image was a small speck in the sky. This technique of replacing the obvious with something seemingly unrelated can also be seen in Brighton Rainbow, above.
Racing Green (2022) Jaguar sports car in racing green on a deep cerise background.
Title: 'Resting Peacock'
Resting Peacock
This peacock knows he’s handsome and is just resting before he displays his full fan tail. And as you move around him, the irridescent tesserae shine with a ‘peacockian’ beauty!
Two small pieces of mosaic art are situated in a dark-stained wooden frame. The mosaics represent flowers and use whole micro-tesserae to draw the outlines of the flowers while leaving the backgrounds in larger plain but iridescent tiles.
Flowers in a wooden frame: Pt1 (2015) In the two ‘Flowers in a wooden frame’ pieces, I allowed the shape of the micro-tesserae (tiles) to dictate the shapes. For the most part, I kept the tiles whole, so there’s the flowers are representational rather than being lifelike. The backgrounds were then laid in a regimented fashion and with very little room for grout. In doing so, it means the eye is drawn to the flowers, but the light reflects off the background.
Flowers in a wooden frame: Pt2 (2015)

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