The Printmaking Tradition on Mount Athos

Editor’s note: We would like to introduce our new contributor, Markos Kampanis. Markos is a prominent artist and iconographer in Greece. He has a particular expertise in Athonite murals and prints and will be sharing his knowledge in a series of articles. Artistic tradition on Mt Athos is usually associated with painted icons and murals.…

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An Interview with Iconographer Federico José Xamist

Federico José Xamist is a remarkably talented young iconographer of whom we have recently become aware. His work exemplifies icon painting as a fresh and living tradition. We offer the following interview to introduce this exciting artist to our readers: Gould: Federico, you grew up in Chile. How did you come to live in Greece? J. Xamist: When I…

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An Inlaid Gospel Cover

  The idea for this gospel cover began several years ago. I discussed with Jonathan Pageau the possibility of  using his stone carvings as inlaid icons in wooden liturgical pieces. He is able to carve the steatite stone slabs quite thin so that the weight is reasonable even for a book cover. I based the…

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Announcing the Orthodox Illustration Project

It is my particular pleasure to introduce the Orthodox Illustration Project – an initiative under the aegis of the Orthodox Arts Journal. In brief, the purpose of the project is to make available online a collection of graphic illustrations of the highest quality. The collection will focus on iconographic drawings and related graphic ornaments stylistically…

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A Choros Chandelier for a Timber Frame Church

During the fall and winter of 2013, I had the marvelous opportunity to make and install a choros chandelier for St. Thomas the Apostle Orthodox Church in Waldorf, Maryland (a parish of the American Carpatho-Russian Diocese). The project was my second large articulated choros (the first, in South Carolina, was described in this article from…

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A Byzantine Church in Wood for South Carolina

For the past year, I have been working to design a substantial new church building for the OCA parish of St. John of the Ladder in Greenville, South Carolina. The parish has acquired an attractive wooded property and wishes to relocate completely. They will need a temple for 250 people and also a parish hall.…

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A Painted Wooden Chalice Set

Historically in the Orthodox world, it must have been very common for chalice sets to be made of wood. Particularly in Russia, village churches would not have been able to afford vessels of fine metal, and essentially everything in an Old Russian village was made of wood. Little survives of the simple ecclesiastical furnishings and…

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New Mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in Cardiff, Wales

Having studied mosaics all over the world for many years I was delighted to receive a commission last year to create a mosaic for a church in Wales. I completed the illustrated mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in March this year. It is sited on the exterior wall of St Martin’s Church of Wales in Roath,…

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