This icon of PENTECOST is quite large, ca. 25 x 11x .75 inches!  It has 33 figures; with Mary the Theotokos in the center, flanked by Mary Magdalene and Peter and dozens of disciples clustered around.  Done in 23.5K genuine gold leaf and acrylic paints and inks.  A similar hand written icon can be yours for $2,500.00 whereas prints are available from $50.00 up to $300.00 depending on size.  Prints can be gilded with gold leaf for an additional charge.  Hopefully you can zoom in on this photo, but if not, let me know and I'll give you another link that will blow your socks off!  :-)

2nd ANNUAL OPEN HOUSE!

20 DEC 2013 Friday - 3-8 p.m.

21 DEC Saturday 2013 - 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

22 DEC Sunday 2013 - 2-6 p.m.

311 Manitou Street

 in the Carriage House behind the Main House

Northfield, MN

Icons for sale, commissions accepted!

Just completed having a professional photographer take shots of all of my icons in my collection.  High resolution!  This icon of the Yaroslavl model of the "Virgin Orans" is for sale at $430.00.  Life size is ca. 4 x 7 x 1 inches on plywood.

Prints are available from $20 to $400.00 depending on whether the print is gilded in 23.5K gold.   Any size print is available up to 24 inches in the longest dimension.  

I'll post all of the icons in the weeks to come.

St. John the Theologian with St. Prochorus

ca. 26" x 24" x 0.75"

Acrylics with 23.5K gold leaf

This is the first of two planned icons of St. John; one as the very old man who is dictating the Gospel of St. John to his disciple, St. Prochorus, and the other one will be of St. John as a very young man (teenager?) who is the "Beloved Disciple" who stood at the foot of the cross and helped bury Jesus, and who ran to the tomb on Easter morning upon hearing the news from Mary Magdalene that, "He's risen!"

This icon is set on the desert island of Patmos where St. John is in exile for preaching the Good News.  Since he can't see well enough up close to write by his own hand, he is dictating his Gospel, and also the book of Revelation, to his young disciple, St. Prochorus.  The red, orange, yellow fan shape in the upper left hand corner will have fine rays of pure gold leaf streaming toward his right ear - as a symbol of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who speaks the Word to St. John and St. John in turn speaks the words to St. Prochorus.

 

Summer of 2013

North wall of my icon studio

311 Manitou St., Northfield, MN

The very top icon is my copy of Rublev's "Holy Trinity" or "The Visit to Abraham"; right below it is a copy of "Pantocrator" that I did in a class with Philip Davidov & Olga Shalamova (teachers from St. Petersburg, Russia); below that is an egg tempera icon in process - The Virgin of Czestochowa ; next to that is my icon processional cross - more of that later as I work on it; and above that is my icon of "Pentecost" with 33 figures.  I'll try and post details of all of these icons.

Close up of central icon, reverse side, processional cross

Summer 2013

The cross itself is ca. 26 inches tall by 24 inches wide, double sided and 2 inches thick at the edges.  I made the wood cross and gessoed it with acrylic gesso - based on the premise that genuine gesso is too brittle to be used on an object that someday is almost guaranteed to smack a door frame or lintel when being carried around!  I'm no fan of acrylic gesso, but it does have the virtue that it's almost bullet proof and simply WILL NOT ever crack!  

There will be a lot of detail added to the cross - the theme of this side is the last chapter of the Book of Revelation - The Lamb (out of sight at the very top), the River of Life, the Tree of Life, the Twelve Fruits on the River of Life, all of which flows over the whole world (out of sight at the very bottom of the cross).  Beside Jesus' head will be four symbols of the Four Evangelists.  

The edges that are beveled toward the icons will be gilded in 23K gold leaf, the River of Life will be "gilded" with "silver" and the river itself will have some textured gesso behind the silver.  

The obverse side is the Cross of St. Damiano - the traditional cross associated with St. Francis of Assisi.  That side is almost complete except for the gilding.

This is a close up of a processional cross that I am working on.  As you can see the basic colors have been laid down now, and I've just begun doing the detail work.  This has a ways to go, and then the gilding will be added - and that's only the first side!  The other side will be some version of the "Tree of Life" - lots of green, blue and golden brown - the very colors of our precious little planet itself!  The whole icon is about 24" tall by 20" wide by 2" thick.  All of the yellow areas will be gilded, and there's lots of detail gilding to be done before it's ready.

This is a view of the icon corner in my home, front hall, first thing you see when you enter the house.  I moved the icon lamp for the photo so all the icons could be seen.  Normally it hangs right in front of the large icon of the Mt. Sinai icon of Jesus - which faces the front door.  Just below that icon is a new icon I've done of the Presentation In The Temple.  It's one of the few I've done using "silver" instead of gold for the background.  If I can get a good photo of that icon, I'll post it here.  Genuine silver quickly tarnishes, of course, so these days I use a non tarnishing metal instead.  I'll try and add some new icons I'm working on these days.

And, finally, here are a few close-ups of several of the icons ...

Of course, the angle of the iPhone has to be skewed in order to cut down the glare from the silver or gold, but at least you can see some of the details of the holy icons.  Enjoy!

This is the icon "Hodegitria" or One Who Shows the Way - it was done as a 'teaching icon' for a class I taught for the Cannon Valley Elder Collegium, September to November 2012.  It measures about 9x11 inches on 3/4 thick plywood.  Acrylics and 24K gold leaf painted on gesso.  Merry Christmas!