The Embrace

My sun and tree mosaic is finished. I had to redo the leaves because I originally made them onto glass that I cut slightly bigger than the leaf parts laid onto it. I did this as a way to make the grout line around the leaves quite thick, however it just resulted in looking clumsy. So I laid fresh metal leaf glass onto the leaves. Although none of the tiles are completely level in this mosaic, the leaves stand slightly proud of the sun, and I like this as it helps to create an almost realistic  feel to the work. In the photo the sun looks quite red, and you would be forgiven if your think that my attempt to make it more orange by putting the gold foil underneath hasn’t worked, however I took the photo outside in a cold grey light as it makes the most of the other colours, but in brighter lights you can see the gold shining through.

I have called this piece “The Embrace” .  It is part 1 of a series called “Catching the Sun”. Here the tree attempts to catch the sun in order to harness the power or light. And it is also an “embrace” –  a thanksgiving or  gratitude for the light it has received, so it can produce new leaves each year and thrive.

After making my coloured drawings for The Embrace I was  inspired by Ian Stewart’s tv series “How to Grow a Planet” where he explains how plants  harness the light from  the sun to create our life-giving atmosphere and how  they  are able to adapt and change in order to survive.

Part 2 and 3 of my series “Catching the Sun” will illustrate other instances of harnessing the sun and our relationship with it.

Come back soon and see the beginnings of part 2!