Editor’s Note: This essay was originally written in Russian by master iconographer Anton Daineko of Minsk, Belarus. It beautifully explores the paradox of creativity within iconography from the very personal perspective of a lifelong practitioner. Anton and Ekaterina Daineko regularly teach icon-painting workshops in the USA, which are highly recommended. They have upcoming workshops in […]
The following is an interview with Romanian master iconographer Ioan Popa. He’s one of the leading representatives of the contemporary icon revival in Romania, focusing in both panel and monumental fresco painting. Our conversation touches on his artistic development, aspects of the professional training of iconographers in Romania and the challenge of creative engagement with […]
Conserve: To protect from loss or harm; to keep quantity and quality constant through physical or chemical reactions or evolutionary changes. Restore: To bring back into existence or use; to return to an original condition. Close in definition, the differences when applied to art treasures can be catastrophic. Consider the botched effort to “restore” Elías […]
The Transfiguration Secco for Lancaster University Catholic Chaplaincy Early in March my assistant Martin Earle, myself, and a former student from the Diploma in Icon Painting that I teach, Fran Whiteside, completed a secco wall painting of the Transfiguration. It took us just twelve days compared to the twenty months we had just spent on […]
Anton and Ekaterina Daineko are a married couple from Minsk, Belarus. Their work in panel icons and frescos stands out for its fluidity in drawing as well as its subtle use of color and highlight. As they are giving some master classes in Vermont this year, I thought it would be a good opportunity to […]
The Coptic tradition of iconography is one of which we know very little about in the West. So many of the ancient monuments were destroyed or came to disrepair as Copts in Egypt were subject to Islamic rule in the 7th century. It is only recently that the old monuments are being rediscovered, cleaned and restored properly. […]
(Editor’s note. For some time now we’ve wanted to find a way to present the burgeoning iconography which is currently happening in Romania. And so after a bit of searching, this article introducing the new school of iconography was written especially for OAJ by Mother Atanasia (Văetişi) of the Stavropoleos Monastery in Bucharest in collaboration with my own parish priest Fr. […]
Like many of the first generation to rediscover the icon in the 20th century, Amiran Goglidze learned iconography by restoring churches. He finished art school (painting college of I. Nikoladze) in 1971, but then also continued to study restoration and conservation of monumental art (Tbilisi State Academy of Painting) from 1971-1977. He was brought very close […]
I am not given to adulation: it places too heavy a burden of expectation on the unfortunate recipient, and often hinders the adorer. But I must confess I border on adulation for the works of the contemporary Russian iconographer and fresco painter, Archimandrite Zenon (Teodor) Every once in a while an iconographer appears who is […]
A masterpiece of iconography has recently been completed at St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church in Santa Rosa, CA (OCA). The dome is the work of Fr. Patrick Doolan, a renowned iconographer trained by Leonid Ouspensky. He and his assistant, Fr. Moses, painted the dome in true fresco over the course of the past year. […]