Christabel Anderson: Authenticity in Sacred Art

Christabel Anderson is one of our collaborators on the Orthodox Art Journal.  She is a British Iconographer and Manuscript Illuminator to whom was recently attributed the prestigious QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) Craft award.   That someone who considers herself first and foremost an Iconographer could be recognized in this manner is already a tribute…

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The Carved Miniatures of George Bilak

George Bilak is a Serbian carver who now lives in the United States.  He carves miniature icons, pectoral crosses, blessing crosses and eggs that will take your breath away.  I can say without hesitating that he has been one of the biggest influences in how I carve miniatures.  My very first miniature commission, of which…

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Orthodox Homiletics: A New Website

When we think of the traditional Orthodox liturgical arts, we most often think about the tactile and the sensory; gilded icons glowing with candlelight cast from iron chandeliers, the smell of incense wafting as the priest walks censing the believers as the choir sings praises to the Theotokos. One thing that doesn’t necessarily come to…

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New Wall Painting

In August I completed a wall painting on the east wall of my medieval parish church, The Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Fathers, Shrewsbury, England. On some of the other walls there already exist simple medieval wall paintings, dating from around 1380 A.D., but the east wall was newly plastered during recent restoration work…

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Wooden Vessels

Recently I had the chance of making a wooden chalice and diskos set for a priest.  It was quite an interesting undertaking as it required a woodturner, a silversmith and myself to bring the whole thing together.   Interestingly enough, the order for this set came as I was working on another wooden chalice, making stone roundels…

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Divine Temple 2012

I would like to draw the reader’s attention to this wonderful publication from Russia. Kolomenskaya Versta Ltd. produces albums, manuals, catalogs and postcards featuring and publicizing contemporary iconography and liturgical art. The fourth edition of their catalog of iconographers, “Divine Temple”  is now available. It is printed in English and Russian. From the publisher: We…

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Embroidery for the Modern Church

In 1995, a small unused room in the Icon Painting School at the Moscow Orthodox Theological Academy was converted into a studio for a single student interested in the lost art of church embroidery. This became the Pictorial Embroidery Department of the Icon Painting School housed in a larger facility within the famous Trinity-St. Sergius…

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