Mosaic Art & Nature meet in Tunisia

As a small creative business, it's personal choice for each Perthshire Artisan how they approach their professional development and feed their inspiration. For some, the earlier and sometimes quieter months of a new calendar year, can provide time and opportunity for this important part of their practice.

Perthshire Artisan member and mosaic artist, Katy Galbraith has shared her experience after being invited to participate in the International Forum of Contemporary 3D Mosaics in Sousse, Tunisia in early March 2023. Artists from Europe and North Africa came together to make sculptural mosaics, on the theme of “Back to Nature”.

Some artists worked on existing structures, such as broken pots or tree roots. Katy chose to create a flower-shaped structure with her signature flowers in mediterranean colours and a bird which says “Makers Gonna Make” on it.

The week included demonstrations, discussions and networking, all on the topic of mosaic and working with found materials. The group were working in the Archaelogical Museum of Sousse, with a fantastic array of Roman mosaics to view and be inspired by. And alongside the artists, classes of school children were attending mosaic workshops as they aim to inform the next generation of mosaic artists.

The organisers had made the week a real cultural celebration too, providing the artists with the opportunity to sample Tunisian food, to dance, to see and enjoy traditional architecture and interior decor, with wall tiles to die for! And not forgetting the shopping experience of the ancient Medina and a traditional hammam.

This fabulous, fun and colourful photo of Katy in Tunisia beautifully shows just how much she loved the whole event, which she found incredibly inspiring from beginning to end, and is looking forward to participating again in the future, and seeing more of the Tunisian mosaic heritage.

We're looking forward to seeing how Katy's Tunisian adventure and experience feeds into her creative practice over the coming months.