Becky Paton on Mosaic Secrets
Please can you tell us about how you got started in mosaics?
I come from a very creative family, my mother is a botanical illustrator and my father a budding photographer – art was in my blood from the very beginning. I used to enjoy making big collages and decided to refine my love for ‘sticking things down’ by learning the art of mosaic making. There are rules within mosaic but quite a few can be broken, tweaked or expanded upon. It’s a constant source of discovery and delight which I am very keen to share with others.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
I find inspiration all around me, nature, exhibitions, books, films, colour, fashion and people all play a huge role in the creation of a new piece of work. I’m so thankful phone cameras are so good these days, I take a lot of photos and store them in my inspiration folders. A few weeks ago I saw a wood pigeon perch in a circular vent on an exterior wall. It was sitting so perfectly with the circular structure in which I already make a series of bird mosaics. You never know what your next piece of work will be; something captivating will trigger it, then it’s all systems go.
You’ve worked on a number of community art projects, can you tell our readers a bit more about this?
I work on a lot of community art projects within my county of Oxfordshire; mainly hospitals and schools. Community art is a way of working with a group of people and facilitating what they would like to create. The children’s wards at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford have many mosaics on their walls that I have taught patients how to make, along with their friends and families. These range from brightly coloured fish swimming up and down the children’s cancer ward to giant abstract flowers on the teenagers ward. The process of making a mosaic is an excellent group activity which works well in clinical settings. They are very meditative to work on which, in turn, can reduce stress. Also, having beautiful mosaics on the walls of wards softens the severity of the hospital environment and hopefully provides calm for the patient and maybe a smile or two, which is never a bad thing.
Do you have a favourite piece/project that you’ve worked on?
I’m very much enjoying the community arts project I’m working on right now. It’s a large mosaic to go into a courtyard garden within the Clinical research facility at the Warneford hospital in Oxford. The brief was to create a piece of work with a Zen-like quality. At the time of design, it was springtime and the blossom was out in force and my eldest son had just travelled back from Japan. Japanese cherry blossom designs came to mind. One member of the research team suggested the silhouette of the Oxford skyline to be incorporated into the design which turned out to be a genius idea as it resembled the jagged lines on a heart monitor display. A perfect piece of symbolism to have in a hospital and worked very well alongside the boughs of the blossom. Children, adults, patients and staff alike have all worked on this mosaic and it should be finished very soon. A wonderful joint effort.
Can you let us know about any future projects?
I am incredibly excited about my next piece of work, it’s a commission for my 11th warrior woman mosaic. To date there are 10 of these mosaics and they are highlighted at the back of my book.
The 11th is going to be Archangel Ariel (some may know her as Uriel) who is the protector of nature and guardian of the earth. Design wise, this commission could not be more perfect for me. I’m in the process of collecting the elements I’d like to go into the overall design and will soon put them all together in a balanced and harmonious way. I am beyond excited to start working on her, keep an eye on my Instagram account (@beckypatonmosaics) for progress.
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