Mosaic Tile Presents Kaleidoscopic Optical Effect

Using a pool in the backyard of a seafront residence in Jávea, Spain, as his canvas, artist Felipe Pantone created a large-scale work of art featuring a clever play on color, light and water.

TILE 0623 Onix Mosaic Pool 06 — Photo Credit: ©FPSTUDIO

TILE 0623 Onix Mosaic Pool 02 — Photo Credit: ©FPSTUDIO

TILE 0623 Onix Mosaic Pool 05 — Photo Credit: ©FPSTUDIO

TILE 0623 Onix Mosaic Pool 01 — *Photos Credit: ©FPSTUDIO*

TILE 0623 Onix Mosaic Pool 04 — Photo Credit: ©FPSTUDIO

TILE 0623 Onix Mosaic Pool 03 — Photo Credit: ©FPSTUDIO

An unspoiled corner of the Mediterranean coast is the site of a somewhat unusual art intervention. Artist Felipe Pantone chose the bottom of a swimming pool in a seafront home in Jávea, Spain to express his art with an optical effect created with thousands of mosaic tesserae by Spanish tile manufacturer Onix. Pantone is an Argentinean-Spanish artist renowned for his colorful, pixeled and digitalized art works. For this project, the interior of a traditional swimming pool has provided this creative artist with the backdrop for an underwater prismatic spiral of color formed by glass mosaic tiles.

Pantone defined seven different colors for the design, which features more than 130,000 glass mosaic tiles. The result is another skillful transformation of space by the artist through a design and choice of a powerful material in a space that previously went completely unnoticed. Pantone has once again successfully created a large-scale project in a clever play on color and light, and on this occasion adding a further element -- water.

An Infinite Pool

The swimming pool is part of the architectural complex of a contemporary minimalist home boasting a prime seafront location. Named the “infinite pool” by Pantone, it stands out for the intense colors of the glass mosaics that form a striking contrast with the white building, which is the work of architect Esther Santos.

Pantone is well-known for his use of light and color, and in this intervention, he has created a mosaic spectrum in tones of blue, yellow and red that merges individual pixels in a constantly shifting rainbow.

Constant Movement

The swimming pool is vibrancy in its essence. The mosaic tiles appear to shift with the movement of the water. The small inch-sized mosaics allow the colors to merge with one another, creating a surprising and changing optical effect. The rippling water, combined with the constantly shifting light, gives the appearance of a living design in permanent movement.

According to Pantone, his intention was “to create an effect that had never been seen in a pool before -- an underwater design that focuses on the light.” “The colors from the diffracted light are submerged in the reflections of the water,” he said. “I love the contrast it forms with the rest of the house, with its clean-cut forms, as well as with the views and the setting.”

The design radiates from the center of the pool and the mosaic tiles spread outwards in a flowing movement that extends to the side walls, thereby increasing the optical illusion to maximum effect. The artistic process begins with a digital phase using several computer programs to create designs that can later be converted into friezes, murals, paintings and sculptures that add a sense of touch and texture to creations that stem from the digital world.