A painting of a photo of a postcard of a mosaic

I recently finished one of of the more unique commissions been asked to do. Years ago while traveling, a friend picked up a postcard showing an image of an ancient Byzantine-looking mosaic of Jesus. It has survived multiple moves, but is being held together with more and more tape and looks more than a little worn. She sent me a photo of the postcard and asked if I could make a painting of it. Why not?

I tried out a bunch of different methods of conveying “mosaic” while still being somewhat original, and avoiding being a precise facsimile of the image (which I didn’t want to do).

Trying to figure out how to convey “lots of tiny tiles” in watercolor.

I finally came up with a version I was pleased with, and shipped it off yesterday!

The final painting of a mosaic of Jesus – Watercolor, 5×7

This was a great technical exercise for me, and strangely meditative to work on. I’d love to know where the original mosaic is, and what the rest of it looks like, as this is obviously just a portion of a larger piece. I’m also thankful to be a painter and not a mosaicist, because wow, I would have zero patience for all those tiny pieces.