ART SPATE: MOSAIC ART OF ED CHAPMAN

Born in 1971, Ed Chapman, is an award-winning British artist known for his mosaics, was acquainted with the world of art by his artist parents. He is the son of artist Margaret Chapman who was from the Northern School. Playing with pastels or pencils were part of his everyday routine even before he was conscious of his natural gifts. But instead of the more conventional media like acrylic or gouache, Ed Chapman found mosaic to be ideally suited for his artistic expressions.

Chapman became a professional artist in the 1990s. He is regarded as having reimagined the mosaic medium. From ceramic to pieces of paper, smashed vinyl records to plectrums, there is hardly any item with which creating art is not possible for Ed Chapman. Subjects of the mosaic portraits range from film and music legends to specially commissioned portraits of families, animals and world leaders. Among his mosaics are portraits of John Lennon, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Nelson Mandela, Alan Sugar, Salvador Dali, David Bowie and more.

Ed aims for maximum impact by trying to keep the palette as simple as possible and audience is left gasping at beholding the eloquent faces staring back at them from the frames. Portraits in ceramic tiles take hours of painstaking effort to create and are constructed from hundreds of mosaic fragments, some no bigger than a couple of millimeters. Each mosaic piece is carefully hand-cut and placed, resulting in an impeccable finish.

Ed Chapman found his own niche in its illustrious legacy - mosaic art. Works have sold in more than 25 countries, gracing the homes of the rich and famous, and been exhibited in galleries in the United Kingdom and around the world. In April 2012, Chapman's mosaic of Jimi Hendrix, made of 5000 fender guitar picks was auctioned for £23,000/$35000, one of the highest prices ever paid for a mosaic piece of art - with proceeds going to Cancer Research UK.