…Timothy, my friend, my advice to you as you look for a sight of the mysterious things, is to leave behind you everything perceived and understood, everything perceptible and understandable, all that is not and all that is, and, with your understanding laid aside, to strive upward as much as you can towards union […]
The icon of the Last Judgement is one of the most complex Christian images. As depicting the final things, it is a synthesis of the cosmic mystery. As an image of judgement, it is also the place where everything is resolved by Christ. From the very first moments in my burgeoning interest in iconology, I […]
It has been my particular honor to create a magnificent shrine and reliquary for the Russian Royal Martyrs. The shrine was commissioned by an American convert to Orthodoxy as a gift to the Hermitage of the Holy Cross, a Russian Orthodox monastery in West Virginia, USA. It was installed in time to commemorate the centenary […]
Sometimes I am commissioned to paint an icon of a saint for whom nothing yet exists, or at least no satisfactory icon. This is usually a pre-schism Western saint. But more rarely, the subject is a new theme, a new emphasis or combination. This was the case when Dr Christine Nellist approached me to create […]
The following is an interview with sculptor Michael Lucas. Mr. Lucas is an accomplished artist who currently focuses on Byzantine-inspired carving in stone. Andrew Gould is working with Michael on an ongoing project to build a baptistery in South Carolina. A. Gould: You started iconographic carving late in your life. Tell us about your background as an artist. […]
This is post 1 of 1 in the series “Local Colors of Conestoga” I’ve wanted to write for a while about what I’ve learned about making local colors—especially from an iconographic perspective. With this year’s harvest of indigo blue from the studio’s woad plants, I’ve taken that opportunity to do so. My hope is to […]
This is part 3 of a series: Part 1, Part 2. In general the artificial image, modeled after its prototype, brings the likeness of the prototype into matter and acquires a share in its form by means of the thought of the artists and the impress of his hands. This is true of the […]
Editor’s Note: This article is a revised and expanded version of the talk with the same title given at the symposium, Living Tradition: Painting Sacred Icons in the 21st Century, organized by the Orthodox Arts Journal and which took place on May 23, 2015, at Holy Ascension Orthodox Church, Mt. Pleasant, SC. This post is […]
Occasionally Jonathan Pageau and I like to experiment with our work – to skirt the boundaries of historical precedent, to revive forgotten and archaic techniques, or to juxtapose ideas in new ways. This project, an elaborate mixed-media icon of Archangel Gabriel, is such an instance. It was not a commissioned project, but rather something we […]
The distinctively fresh and masterful work of Maxim Sheshukov, a contemporary iconographer working in Sviyazhsk (Kazan region of Russia), is another example of the best synthesis of creative interpretation and conformity to Tradition which we can find nowadays. His work was mentioned in passing in a previous article on Contemporary Iconographers of Russia, but I thought it […]