Iconography
Symeon van Donkelaar: Local Color in Icons
(Editor’s comment: Symeon van Donkelaar is a Canadian iconographer. I find his work fascinating as it is an exploration of the flatter and more stylized threads of iconography, Coptic art, early Medieval Spanish art as well as what was developed in Central and Northern Europe before the Gothic period. Lines are bold and highly calligraphic. Color…
Continue reading »A Tale of Transformation
A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION Two New Mosaics for St George’s Orthodox Church, Houston, Texas Aidan Hart This is the story of how two large mosaics for St George’s Orthodox Church in Houston Texas came to completion this January. The genesis of a mosaic is a tale of transformation, from sand to glass, to image,…
Continue reading »Divine Patterns in Stories and Images
In 2015, Andrew Gould got a lot of positive attention by presenting his united vision of liturgical art at the Climacus Conference. This bi-annual event has been a staple for exploring various aspects of culture and intellectual life and how they connect to the Orthodox spiritual journey. In 2017 it was my turn to fly…
Continue reading »The Transfiguration Secco for Lancaster University Catholic Chaplaincy
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…
Continue reading »Who Do You Say I Am? The Triumph of Orthodoxy
Holy icons act as signs that point to the immediacy of the depicted. The icons present to the beholder a way of being in relation with the signified. It is precisely this intimacy which many find troubling. The on-off Iconoclastic Controversy in New Rome on the Bosporus that spanned nearly a century (AD 726–87 and…
Continue reading »Making Art with an Axe
As we have just passed through the season of Theophany, I have been brought to ponder what Theophany means for art, especially liturgical art. The icon of Theophany offers much to reflect upon as we gaze at the elements it brings together. Just as in our lives and in the world, in the making of Christian…
Continue reading »An Innovative Carved Icon of Archangel Gabriel – A Collaborative Work
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…
Continue reading »Materiality Refined: The Carvings of Andrei Raileanu
Andre Raileanu is a young Romanian icon carver I have been keeping my eye on for a while now. We have already written a few articles on the amazing things happening in Romania ( here, here and here) but Raileanu’s exploration of stone carving stands very much on its own as both an exception and…
Continue reading »Interview With Nikola Sarić
Tell us a bit about your formative years; how you became interested in art and icon painting in particular. I grew up next to a talented father, so watching him painting was the first step towards art. When I was a child I was reading my father’s art books and I can still remember how…
Continue reading »The Sacred Arts Initiative “Rethinking Sacred Arts”
The Sacred Arts Initiative “Rethinking Sacred Arts” A Review Although the task of OAJ has mainly been to work towards the promotion of the revival of traditional Orthodox liturgical arts, along the way we have not hesitated to engage the sphere of secular art. This has not only been relegated to a critique of its…
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