Mosaic Fountains – Patio Paradise Fountains

Mosaic Fountains

I have always enjoyed mosaics. Visiting Barcelona, Spain in the early 2000’s I was intrigued and inspired by the mosaic work of famous artist, Antonio Gaudi and his less known collaborator, ceramicist Josep Maria Jujol. Guell Park is just one of Gaudi’s fantastic works, but it lit the fire in me and encouraged me to incorporate mosaics into my fountains! This is the story I tell in “Gaudi and Whitman, Fountains of My Inspiration”. The photo carousel below traces my steps at “Parque Guell”

#1 Photo showing the Serpentine bench (from "Ok Apartment Barcelona" website) Note the naturalistic water feature at the base of the stairs

#2 Here I am at the Serpentine Mosaic bench overlooking the city of Barcelona

#3 On the steps looking up at the Serpentine bench and the succession of mosaic covered symbols of Catalan Politics and Religion. (Photo from Gaudi Barcelona Club website)

#4 A friend at the mosaic feature just below the mosaic lizard (or salamander, or "el drac" the dragon

#5"El drac' and the unique 3 D triangulated mosaic sculpture with the real stone from the waterfall feature at the base of the stairs

#6 Note the natural stone. What a mixture of fantasy, geometry, and the kernel of natural beauty at the center of it all

I made three trips to Barcelona in the early 2000’s. After the second trip, having seen Parc Guell and other works of Gaudi, when I got back home to Tampa I began to experiment with Mosaics. I read “how to” books and got direction from mosaic artist Tracy Melody, who at the time had a mosaic studio in Tampa. I met her after one of her classes. She looked at photos of my fountains, heard my story about Gaudi, and was as excited as I was. She sent me home with a jar filled with vitreous glass tiles and a few pointers. I ordered supplies online: mesh to glue the cut glass to and two types of nippers or glass cutters, tweezers, glue, etc. But as Tracy pointed out: no one else is doing mosaics like the ones I envision. I’d have to experiment and innovate. Below you see photos that show the evolution of my mosaic techniques.

An early effort at placing vitreous glass mosaic on my fountains. I tried placing the mosaic first, before I applied my coquina finish. It looked like a decal. Not appealing!

My second attempt worked much better. I placed the mosaic on the fountain at the same time as my coquina finish. A lot more work! But the mosaic looks like an integral part of the piece! Very pleasing to the eye!

Below are photos of the first application of mosaics to my work. I call this Serenity shape fountain “Pondscape”,