MOSAIC ARTIST - CHRISTINE STICKLEY
“I am not myself if I am not creating something new.”
My mosaic journey started quite by accident. This is an art journey, from pottery, to photography, printmaking and mosaic. I had been working in my loved medium of art photography for many years, which, surprisingly, led to making an artist book and a work with coloured perspex. Like photography, perspex was working with light and colour.
Some years ago, during an Arts Trail in the Blue Mountains, I called in to see Marian Shapiro’s studio, and was immediately inspired by her use of stone, and raw material, the shapes and three-dimensional nature of mosaic. I had been collecting rocks, shells, and old bits and pieces, for years as well as the strange shapes from melted glass and metal from the loss of our studio during a bushfire. I could see mosaic could present a way to incorporate these pieces into an art form.
FINDING MOSAIC
In 2014, I began regular classes with Caitlin Hepworth in Springwood. Yearning for depth and reason for my mosaic work, I found it a little difficult to throw myself into the “Mad Mosaic Mondays”. But I was buoyed by the results, and loved the tactile three- dimensional forms I was making. I have continued classes with Caitlin ever since, be it at the Creative Arts Centre in Springwood at first, in her home or at the studio at Woodford Academy since its inception. My involvement in mosaic has developed, along with friendships with fellow artists for over twelve years.
“ I was yearning for depth and reason in my mosaic work ”
Don’t Drown my Valley, Christine Stickley
Blue Mountains Art Prize, Mosaic Award, 2020
A Regent Honeyeater, a critically endangered species in the Burragorang Valley, which was muted to be flooded further by raising the Warragamba Dam wall.
Hand made ceramic, smalti, stained glass, copper wire, glass beads, glass stringers.
Life can be rather full, with other creative pursuits, writing, bushwalking and being with my family, so often making mosaic is a willingness to meet deadlines with intense periods of work, and attendance at studio sessions at Woodford. When in full swing, and during Covid, when classes were online, I would work most weekday afternoons until around 6 pm, or until the glue runs out. As we devote so much of our lives to mosaic, I need to be inspired by an idea. The enjoyment of working in the studio at Woodford Academy certainly keeps me on track also. It is a special time, to lose yourself in creating, a peaceful place to be in one’s mind. Also, we inspire each other with our very different approaches to making mosaics.
A CREATIVE LIFE BEGINS EARLY
My brother Matt and I attended art classes Queen’s Park in Ipswich, in Queensland each Saturday during school terms, in the early to mid 1960s, taught by a wonderful artist, Arch Gratton. Picture lots of children sitting on the lawns under the trees, working on our
drawing pads with oil pastels, choosing subjects to draw, from the teacher-drawn examples leaning against the tree trunks. We would eagerly line up to ask the opinion of Mr. Gratton about our work and he would offer suggestions to improve it. How fortunate we were as children, to be given the validation of creating art, to have my astute mother seeing the need in her children, and to spend two hours in the open air, drawing, each Saturday, despite our complaints about rising early to head off to art class.
Homage to Home, Christine Stickley
Second Prize Wall Hanging, RAS, 2019.
“How fortunate we were as children, to be given the validation of creating art.”
My father is a very fine painter and photographer, and he attended the National Art School in Sydney upon his retirement. As we were growing up, he always shared his creative eye, his drawings, and photography with us. He had the ability to turn his hand to anything requiring initiative and inventiveness. This was my everyday life as a child. It is a wonderful gift to have both parents interested, helping, and hands-on in their children’s artistic pursuits.
In the Garden, Christine Stickley
Highly Commended. Wall Hanging, RAS, 2021
Christine’s mother, perfectly dressed amongst the flowers.
Happy Campers, Christine Stickley
Second Prize, MAANZ (NSW) Sculptural Award, 2018
Warm memories of family camping trips in their van.
AN ECLECTIC STYLE
My mosaic style is very eclectic. I like working with colour and light, so Smalti is my favourite medium, although I use lots of different material. I am happy when I can present something three dimensional that I am pleased with and that brings joy to others. When emerged in the process of making and the challenges it creates, the struggle, one can sometimes lose sight of the outcome. Mario Gauci, April Keogh’s partner, said to me one evening, that our mosaic work brings joy to other people. How good to realise that!
How much I am renewed visiting Art Shows, or the Art Gallery of NSW, (AGNSW). How exciting it was to see the culmination of our Blue Mountains Mosaic Collective exhibition at Braemar Gallery in Springwood at the end of 2025. To experience so much exquisite mosaic work hung together in one gallery, one can begin to appreciate the value others receive.
Faith, Chrstine Stickley
Finalist, St Columba’s Art Prize, 2026
Our mosaic work brings joy to other people.
Therefore, it is no surprise that the part of the process I enjoy most is the display. I love being able to talk to others about what my work is saying and how. My mother encouraged us as children to enter the Eisteddfods, the annual Ipswich Show, art prizes, and church art shows whilst we lived in Queensland, so that became a normal thing to do in one’s life.
Faith (detail), Christine Stickley
Faith (detail), Christine Stickley
CREATIVE TIME
These days, I do love to sit on a Sunday afternoon, my creative day, looking out over the valley, listen to music, the “chores” all done, and just create, preferably with my daughter on the other side of the magnificent table that supports our art making and bears the scars of many a project. Haylea will be working on an illustration and I on a mosaic, chipping bits of glass her way – “award-winning shards of glass,” she emphasises.
I am sure that having another artist in the family helps overcome any “slumps” as my daughter is such a great encourager and companion; a valued voice of artistic consultation.
Christine at work in her studio overlooking the garden.
Julia Cameron’s book, “The Artist’s Way” has been another thoughtful prompt in the artistic process. Julia recommends writing artist’s pages each day and taking yourself on an artist date, each week, alone.
Whilst working in the “other world”, longing to create and write instead of doing what was necessary to survive, morning pages certainly helped me ride through tough times of longing and questioning.
The Wheel of Becoming, Christine Stickley, 2020
Smalti, Vitreous Glass, Cinca, Bhudda statue.
INSPIRED BY ARTISTS AND PLACES
Expansion, Modernist Mosaic by Margo Lewers
The Rex Hotel Canberra
Some of the most interesting mosaics that I enjoy are found in Australia. Margo Lewers (1908 – 1978) is one of our mid-century, ground-breaking, Australian modernist artists. Her amazing mosaic, Expansion, was installed on the wall at the Canberra Rex Hotel in 1960, and is still there today, having undergone a comprehensive restoration in 2010. Her home, which is now The Penrith Regional Gallery and the Lewers Bequest in Emu Plains, features some of her abstract mosaics. One of the highlights of my art career, amongst many, has been to exhibit here on two separate occasions.
MOSAIC HIGHLIGHTS
Visiting Ravenna, twice, was also magical. Sitting in the studio of Koko Mosaico for a week-long workshop seemed to be an impossible dream come true. Attending a three- day workshop with John Sollinger in Victoria was another special experience. There have been many such experiences, workshops with Rachael Bremner, and Wendy Edwards, as well as the continued support of Caitlin and my friends at Woodford Academy, the oldest building in the Blue Mountains. This lovely sandstone building is a beautiful place in which to work and make art.
“Sitting in the studio of Koko Mosaico… seemed to be an impossible dream come true.”
Christine at Koko Mosaico, Ravenna, Italy.
FUELLING CREATIVITY
Pleiades, Christine Stickley
Smalti, Glass beads, tempered glass, Eco-smalti, glass gems.
To fuel my creativity, I enjoy attending art exhibitions, particularly AGNSW, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Tweed River Regional Art Gallery for my yearly fix, or just the Art Gallery Shops, looking at colour combinations, the ways artists express themselves and how they tell a story. Often I am physically looking behind the work, how is it hung? I read all the notes, much to my daughter’s frustration. The artists and their lives hold as much fascination for me as their work. What were their lives like?
WHAT KEEPS ME CREATING?
Three words to describe my style: Personal, Storytelling, Spiritual.
My work expresses something I am experiencing, about my past, or my relationship with the environment, often with a spiritual undertone.
What keeps me creating? I am not myself if I am not creating something new in some manner. Swimming laps or long walks bring solutions and ideas to the fore. As artists often say, it is not a choice; it is just what you do. If not making a mosaic, I am writing.
Christine pictured with Down on Dutty’s Farm
First Prize Wall Hanging, RAS, 2023
Highly Commended, Hawkesbury Agricultural Show, 2023.
The Grotto, Christine Stickley
First Prize, RAS, Wall Hanging, 2024
Smalti, millifiori, plaster statue, imitation gold leaf, metal leaves, vitreous glass, glass gems.
