Bill Hoopes: Making a West Coast Mosaic

It starts with a painting, and it will end with an 8 foot by 12 foot mosaic mural. A Howe Sound lansdscape in oils, painted by BC artist Bill Hoopes. 

The artist makes a line drawing inspired by the painting. The drawing is projected, and then traced onto large sheets of white coroplast. The coroplast will be attached to plywood and cut into two dozen 2 by 2 foot panels. 

Hoopes draws a design model of the same landscape in color pencil. 

Each sector on the color drawing will be recreated on a coroplast/plywood panel. 

Hoopes' method of nipping tiles for the mosaic will be repeated by a group of students from the local Elementary school. He shows how to use a transparent bag to capture both the trimmed tiles and the glass shards. 

Grade 6 and Grade 7 students paint the tiles with white glue, then attach them to sheets of fiberglass mesh. Hoopes has placed a layer of transparent cellaphane on top of the coroplast to prevent sticking.

Hoopes compares the evolving mosaic against the proportions and the feeling evoked by his landscapes. 

The fused glass tiles were donated. 

The mosaic panels near completion.

A completed panel - a patch of spruce trees in tile. 

The first 2 by 2 foot panel is pressed into a notched layer of white, acrylic modified thinset. 

Making adjustments once the coroplast sheet is removed. 

Hoopes finds that by cutting subsequent sheets in two he can manipulate and align the tiles more easily. 

The white thinset dries quickly. It is mixed in relatively small quantities, then applied on small, manageable sections. Once thinsetting is complete, and the application has had a day to dry, grouting begins. 

With such a large area to work with, and so many grout lines, plenty of clean water is needed to keep the grout sponges clean. 

The completed mural. 

The students from the Bowen Island Community School who helped the artist. The project was funded in part by ArtsStarts.