Ceramic tile painting is unlike any other traditional style of painting, artist Mike Tauber said, as the medium makes it challenging to know what the artwork will look like before it is fired in a kiln.
“I guess I’m a glutton for punishment, but I just like the medium because of the way it looks, and I lay it on really thick so it has a very rich, glossy texture when they’re fired,” Tauber said. “I just love the finished look of the tiles, and they have a permanence to them because it’s basically indestructible once it’s finished.”
Before Tauber lays down pigmented glaze, he starts by drawing with wax on the tile. As Tauber paints glazes onto his ceramic tiles, he references already pigmented and fired chips to know what color he’s laying down.
“I rely on colored chips right next to me while I’m painting, so I know when I dip into that jar I know exactly what color I’m laying down,” Tauber said. “I know what it’s going to look like after it comes out of the kiln, but it doesn’t look like that right now.”
Tauber noted that he’s been an artist all his life. After winning art contests in third grade, Tauber said he was hooked, aspiring to make a living as an artist.
After Tauber received his fine arts degree from San Diego State University, he worked as a professional artist, primarily on painted murals and gallery-style, ceramic tile landscapes.
Through college, Tauber created renderings from blueprints, sketching hundreds of kitchen designs and more, he said.
“I still work with architects and designers,” Tauber said. “A lot of my tile murals are going to be on buildings that haven’t been built yet, so I have to be able to read floor plans and elevations. So when I’m designing murals, I’m working on my art as they’re building the building, and it all comes together at the last minute.”
Tauber’s tile works “look like classic oil paintings, but they’re done in ceramic tile,” he said.
Tauber is looking forward to joining Dawn Buckingham and four other South Orange County artists in Sorrento, Italy in October to display their art pieces at the Cloisters at St. Francis as a part of a visual arts exchange through Dana Point Sister Cities. The ceramic artist plans to display tile landscapes depicting the Southern California coastline.
“The pieces I’m bringing to Sorrento are specifically Southern California, because we want to introduce ourselves to Italy and speak specifically to South Orange County and Dana Point,” Tauber said.
Among the tile works Tauber plans to display are depictions of El Camino Real, the Mission in San Juan Capistrano, the Keyhole Arch in Laguna Beach and the Dana Point Arches.
Tauber added that he’s looking forward to the conversations he’ll have with Italian artists in Dana Point’s sister city and hopes to build connections.
“I love Dana Point,” Tauber said. “I’m grateful to represent it overseas.”
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