Saint Luke, Pray for Us!

Today is the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, the patron saint of artists and iconographers).  I love this particular icon of him painting the icon of Mary, the Mother of God and Jesus, who are posing for him. The the composition of this icon is based on a drawing by my master teacher, Pere Igor.  Unfortunately, I never had a chance to ask him why the pose of the two figures in the icon are so different from the actual figures who are standing in front of him.  

So on his feast I was able to make a bit more progress on highlighting the figure of the Mary and Jesus in the center of the triptych.  Her garment is highlighted in paint; the figure of the Christ Child is highlighted with gold leaf (sometimes called 'gold assist').  

His little overgarment is highlighted in much the same way as with paint, only using finer, sharper brush strokes.  Instead of paint, gold size (a crushable compound called a mordant that dries tacky) is applied to all of the areas where a gold line is desired.  It has to be thick enough so the brushstrokes will hold their shape and fluid enough to paint with.  

When the size has set (depending on the size it will remain open for at least an hour or two), gold leaf is then pressed onto the areas painted with size.  And voila! The gold lines appear as if by magic on the icon (usually) when the excess gold is gently brushed away with a soft brush.

Then follows the painstaking faulting of the gilded areas, because inevitably, their will be lines here and there that the gold did not adhere to or a line or two the one wielding the brush failed to paint in, and so the process is repeated once or twice (or again and again if you are having a particularly bad day) until all the gold lines are complete.

A couple of coats of shellac to fix the gold leaf (which is surprisingly fragile), followed by redrawing the lines as necessary to pull it all together.

   

Practice, Practice, Practice!

 

A beautiful way to highlight garments is the technique called "double reflection" in the translation of Pere Igor's book "The Icon: Image of the Invisible".  Not having the original French available (or any proficiency in French, that term may actually have a quite different and more precise meaning.  

But in essence, this type of highlighting of the garment utilizes one color (usually, but not always a kind of bluish-gray to highlight a garment in a completely different color.  In these panels, the garments are a kind of reddish brown (R) and a brownish/greenish ochre (L).  

If (and its a big if in my case), the color is applied with just the right amount of transparency that builds up to the brightest highlight being barely but sufficiently opaque, and if the underlying color is transparent, well, it can be, as Pere Igor would say, terrific.

The key is restraint, combined with decisive and expressive brushstrokes.  Getting it right takes a lot of practice - I still feel like a beginner every time, so I'm still practicing!

In Praise of Pure Pigments

One of the first assignments in art classes is to do a painting using only hues mixed from the three primary colors of red, blue and yellow.   I suppose its a useful exercise but unless you are as naturally gifted a colorist as a Cezanne or Matisse the resulting painting is predictably a disappointing collation of muddy and/or garish oranges, greens and purples.  

Fortunately,  for most of art history, beginning with the cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira,  artists worked using pure pigments (their palette was limited to red and yellow ochres and black).  20,000 years later the various shades of ochre and other mineral colors remain the workhorse colors of icon painting.

Today was spent in the company of malachite green, used as a highlighting color on the landscape and architectual elements of the triptych that I'm working on.  Natural malachite is too expensive for my budget, but the colorists at Kremer Pigments manufacture an imitation of that warm greenish pigment that is both affordable and beautiful.  

Mixed with a little bright yellow ochre and white, I think it is a superlative highlighting color, which, once you start looking for it, you notice in many Muscovite  icons of the 14th and 15 century.  

  

 

Ugly Duckling

 Opening up the icon is the "ugly duckling" stage of the work of icon painting, as one begins laying in the base colors.  Greenish-red faces, garish color contrasts, undefined forms etc... have to be put-up with at this point in the painting.  A stage which must not be rushed through, even though the temptation is do exactly that.

Eventually (if all goes well), once the shadows, outlines,  highlights, gold assist are added the ungainly gray cygnet will be transformed into a swan.  But in the meantime.... 

At Last!

 Back on February 17th  I completed the drawing for what I thought was going to be my next icon - a triptych of the Mother of God of the Burning Bush (or the Unburnt Bush) with flanking figures of the Prophet Moses and the Prophet Isaiah for the prayer corner of the little oratory in my studio.   

My plan was to pray and meditate on the theophany at Sinai during Lent when Roman Catholics read and ponder the Book of Exodus.  

It was a great plan, except that my Lent this year started on the 24th of February when I discovered that I couldn't move without being in terrific pain and ended up going down to Seattle for back surgery (I'm doing much, much better, thank you!) and a long recuperation.  

As October begins and the year is almost over, I'm grateful to say that this icon is finally underway.  This afternoon I finished applying the red ochre trace lines and shadows on each of the figures and backgrounds.  

If you are interested, please  join me as I post from time to time on this new project. 

What A Moment To Be Painting Icons

 What a moment in history to be painting icons.    

The purportedly Orthodox Christian autocrat in Russia is threatening nuclear war against the (mostly) Orthodox Christian Ukrainians in the name of defending traditional Christian values against the satanic Americans and Europeans conspiring to impose uni-sex bathrooms on an unsuspecting Eurasia.  The Patriarch of Moscow has defended the invasion since day one and is currently assuring the poor wretches conscripted into the Russian army that all their sins will be forgiven if they die in battle.  

The Ukrainians, victims of an unprovoked, unjust and immoral invasion, understandably want their country back, and appear to be undaunted by the fire raining down on them daily (and the threats of nuclear attack to come).  

So this terrible fratricidal war grinds on with no end in sight.

Against this dark background I've completed another icon, of Jesus and Saint Joseph, Joseph the Patriarch and Saint John the Theologian(Evangelist). 

Through the intercession of Joseph the Provider, may all threatened by famine and hunger because of this war, especially in Africa, receive their daily bread.

Through the intercession of Saint Joseph, may all those, who like the Holy Family, have fled violence and persecution, find safety and one day return to their homes and communities.

Through the intercession of Saint John the Evangelist, may we come to believe that God is love and learn to love one another.

Grant this through Christ Emmanuel, the Prince of Peace. Amen.