Columbia School Mosaics

These beautiful mosaics by Carina Wyatt and Cathy Ludlow are just around the corner from our house. They are huge scale pieces - a series of panels which must each be about 2 metres wide. The top image shows one of the panels in its entirety - the other images are all details.

The panels are on the back wall of the Columbia School - an old Victorian primary school with high brick walls around the compound. For me they represent public art at its very best - beautiful heart-lifting pieces sensitively placed in the environment. Columbia Road is famous for its Sunday flower market and the local reference is clear.

The designs remind me a little of the botanical photos by Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932). His incredible pioneering studies of plants investigate the 'engineering' of their forms. In his own words:

...the plant must be valued as a totally artistic and architectural structure...

I love all the mixes of colours and shapes in these pieces - Carina Wyatt and Cathy Ludlow feel to me like real masters of their materials and process. It's a pleasure to walk past them everyday.