Art Of The Matter: Mixed-Media Byzantine Mosaic of the Virgin Mary

Mixed-Media Byzantine Mosaic of the Virgin Mary

Submitted by Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art

The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art and Shawnee Outlook are bringing readers a glimpse into the museum’s offerings and feature a project for them to try at home. For more information about the museum and its programs, visit mgmoa.org or call (405) 878-5300.

This month, we are going to work with all kinds of materials. When you make art with several materials, it’s called “mixed-media” – and it can be lots of fun.

The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art is currently hosting a beautiful special exhibit titled “Blessed Virgin: Images of the Virgin Mary,” so we are using that as our inspiration. A couple of the pieces in the exhibit are from the Byzantine era, between 330-1450 A.D. That was a long time ago! Artists at that time loved to create mosaics, which are art pieces made up of small pieces of stone, gems and tile. Because painting with tiles was a little limiting, the Byzantine style simplified features and details.

We are going to make an image of the Virgin Mary using the same style, but with materials we have at home. We can use small pieces of colored paper, dabs or paint, squares made with colored pencil or marker or anything else you can imagine.

Instructions:

Start with a blank piece of white, or light-colored paper. Using a pencil, draw an oval in the middle of the sheet that takes up about ½ of the sheet, this will be Mary’s head. About 1/3 of the way down, draw her eyes. The Byzantine style was to draw almond shaped eyes with heavy eyebrows. Next, draw two vertical lines from just below the inside of the eyebrows to create the nose. You can put a little mark at the bottom of the nose if you want. Then, draw the mouth. The Byzantine style of mouth was pretty flat, but we can make a big smile if we want. Don’t forget to add a neck and shoulders.

ABOVE, BELOW and BELOW RIGHT: Pieces like these from the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art’s current special exhibit, “Blessed Virgin: Images of the Virgin Mary,” inspired this month’s mixed-media art project readers can try at home.

ABOVE: Example of completed mixed media mosaic.

Next, decide on what materials you want to use to create your mosaic. In the example, I used small squares of colored paper. I didn’t have a good color for Mary’s face, so I took a piece of yellow construction paper and colored over it with a brown colored pencil. The two colors together gave me a color I was happy with. If you are going to use paint, a thick paint like tempera will work best. If you don’t have the exact colors you want, experiment with mixing colors. If you are using colored pencils, you can mix them as well by making a tile with one color and covering over it with another.

The Byzantines often followed the outlines and curves of their subject with tiles and then filled in the rest of the area, but you can add the tiles any way you want. Fill in her face, neck and shoulders. You can be creative with her jewelry and clothing.

Next, you are ready to decorate her headpiece. One of the pieces in the traveling exhibit shows Mary with a crown of flowers on her head, another has a large jewel above her forehead and jewels wrapped around her head. I chose to cut out paper petals and made flowers with leaves that I glued together. Do you have some glitter, sequins or beads? They would be great for the head piece and the clothing and jewelry.

Finally, we want to decorate the background. Several of the images of Mary show light emanating from her like rays of sunlight. What would you like to see?

As a finishing touch, you can take a black marker and outline the face, neck and shoulders as well as the facial features. You can outline parts of the headpiece or background too.

Remember to take a picture of your artwork and share it on social media with hashtag #MGMOAart!

View a 20-minute tour of the “Blessed Virgin: Images of the Virgin Mary” exhibit on the museum’s YouTube channel. You can search by Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art on YouTube or use the camera on your mobile device to scan the QR code included with this project.

Scan this code to visit the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art’s at-home project page.

Scan this code to take a virtual tour of the museum’s special exhibit, “Blessed Virgin: Images of the Virgin Mary.”