St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Icon of St. Elizabeth of Hungary

St. Elizabeth of Hungary, 12.5" x 10" x 1", egg tempera using natural pigments, 24K gold leaf, on genuine gessoed board with raised edge.  Note the Wartburg castle in the background - that was her own castle (!), her own coat of arms and the icon of the Virgin & Child on the walls.  This was presented as an ordination gift to Rev. Joy Gonnerman because she did her clergy internship under my supervision along with my colleague Rev. Judy Gustafson at the Kenyon Area Internship Committee (8 ELCA churches working in a co-op for this purpose.)

Icon of "The Holy Brothers Apostles - Andrew the First Called, and Peter the Rock" written in acrylics and 24K leaf on an edge glued board with oak reinforcing on the back, set in a hand made maple frame that is also gilded in 24K gold leaf, measuring ca. 18.5" x 14.5" x 5/8" (not counting the frame.)
The model for this icon is the original icon presented by Athenagoras the Patriarch of Constantinople to Pope Paul VI on the occasion of Paul's visit to the Holy Land.  You can find this image on the internet, and then note the unique details of my icon, i.e. the framing, lettering and colors I chose.  The square knot, crosses, and expanded lettering are unique.  This is not a copy, this is an original, and as such it's protected by copyright, as are all of my icons.  Email me or call for price and terms.

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!  :-)

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!

Blessed Advent, and Merry Christmas!  This is my icon that I posted here last year!  I hope you can zoom in on this icon to see the details ... it's tricky to photograph gold (as I have complained before) because the reflections are not easily controlled ... so I apologize for the amateur photography.  

This icon is based on prototypes from the 13th and 14th centuries.  There are two common types of this icon - in this one Mary is facing and touching the baby Jesus.  In the other type, she is facing away from him and contemplating what will become of this child.  I prefer this one.  The midwives are in the lower right hand corner, Joseph and the nameless figure (The Tempter?) are in the lower left corner, the three wise men approach from the left side and the many shepherds and their sheep are startled by the three angels appearing in the gold sky.  The texture of the sky is deliberately different than the texture of the ray of light and the area of the sky it comes from as it shines on the new born Jesus.

Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles!

Mary Magdalene icon in the process of being gilded with 23.5K gold leaf!  This icon of one of my favorite apostles is smaller than the last one I did.  After the gilding is done I usually let the icon rest for at least a week or so - that way the varnish under the gold can really set up hard.  Then, when I begin painting the details it's not as likely that my sleeve or buttons will scratch the gold.

My icons at Bethlehem Lutheran, Minneapolis were well received.

Nineteen of my icons were on display in the Gallery of Bethlehem Lutheran, Lyndale Ave. South, at 41st Street in Minneapolis, and a dozen others were in the show cases, all during Advent 2011.  

The congregation chose one of my icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Jesus on her lap, "Hodegitria" for their annual Christmas card that was reproduced as a full color card and mailed to all families of Bethlehem Lutheran.

I gave two gallery talks, one to a middle school age class and one to an adult forum age group.  Lots of excellent questions and interest in the icons as "theoscopy" - or theology in full color vision!

 This large icon stood at the entrance to the Gallery.  It was dramatically lit and served well to introduce people to the icons.

 Full scale shot of two larger icons hanging on the wall.  The head of the cleric is Bishop Eivind Berggrav, the Bishop of the Resistance in Norway during WWII, and the saint who worked to reconcile Norway and Germany after the war.  The elaborate icon is of St. Olav, the patron saint of Norway.

The plaques below were mounted at the entrance to the Gallery that described the icons and their purpose.  I received many comments about the icons and the links to the scriptures that I had provided.

St. Ladislaus of Hungary - an icon in process.  This is a "naming icon" done on commission for a family.  If I ever figure out how to make him NOT stand on his head, I'll resubmit this blog entry!  But for now I'm still giggling at the silly things this blog does ;-))

At work on an icon of Martin Luther as a monk.  The official portraits of him date some twenty years after he entered the Augustinian Friars in his early 20's, so I regressed that portrait back to his early days.

My icon of the "Icon made without human hands" ready for final details and lettering.  I'm pleased that the gilding came out so nice.

Detail of one of my icons of St. Mary Magdalene.  This icon was purchased to be presented as an ordination gift to a Methodist minister.

 I'm laying out the drawing of the icon of Pentecost.  To get the scale of the figures right for the icon board I placed a sheet of white paper on the board, then I drew directly on the vellum with pencil, then I traced over the pencil with India ink.  After that I put a carbon under the vellum, removed the white paper, and traced the drawing directly onto the gesso of the board.  It's a bit round-about, but since the drawing is ca. 24 inches long and 14 inches high, the icon board was the best surface I had to work on!

 This is the exterior of a new icon I'm "writing"

the ICXC are the Greek abbreviation of JESUS CHRIST.  There is some more color to be added to the cover, and some gold too.  Below is the icon when it's open.  The labels identifying St. Mary Theotokos, Jesus, and St. John the Baptist have to be added.  The icon stands about 7 inches tall and 4 inches wide when closed.  When it's complete, I'll post another set of photos.

You might have to zoom in on the Seraphs which are lightly painted in white and black on either side of the seated Jesus.  The prototype model for this triptych is the "Diesis" type of icons - where the central icon is of Jesus, and the side icons are of Mary his mother, and John who was the forerunner of the Messiah.  Both of them are gesturing toward him with their hands and inclined heads, saying, "Don't look at us, look at him, for he is the Messiah, the Savior of the World."

The Annunciation to Mary - 

Hopefully you will be able to zoom in on Mary's left hand.  She is holding a drop spindle and was busy spinning when the angel showed up and really changed her day!  There are two traditions concerning where she was, and what she was doing, when she encountered the angel; one is that she was spinning, which is the one I've chosen here; the other is that she was at the well drawing water to bring home.  I'll probably do that icon soon.  

This is a "practice" icon - in that I did it on a lightweight "Claybord" (tm) and then framed that, and also I experimented with some of the 23.5 Karat gold leaf I used.  It seems to have worked, but we'll know for sure in a couple of centuries whether or not it is a good idea.  Stay tuned!  This is the icon I was working on when I hosted 4 middle school age girls and their home schooling teachers and mothers a couple of months ago.  Now the icon is complete and ready to be blessed so that it can contribute to the spiritual growth of all who come before it as they read this story in the gospel according to Luke.

As usual, the photography of gold leaf is tricky because it is so highly reflective at certain angles.  It's almost like taking a photo of a mirror!  It's with good reason that genuine gold represents the mystical spiritual dimensions of theology - it's constantly changing, yet it never changes at all.  

St. Olav of Norway

St. Olav (Olaf) of Norway was martyred on 29 July 1030 - killed at the Battle of Stikklestad, near Trondheim, Norway.  My icon shows him as a crowned king, holding the battle ax that killed him, and the orb of the eternal heavenly kingdom.  The large domed nails of the frame add weight and dimension to the icon.  I painted this on a one inch thick wood panel, in acrylics, using 24K gold leaf.  The patron is Norwegian and the icon now lives in Oslo, Norway.  It measures ca. 7.5 inches by 10 inches.

Mary Magdalene - Apostle to the Apostles

Mary Magdalene is the first witness to the Resurrection.  My icon of her shows her carrying an expensive container of myrrh to be used for the final anointing of Jesus' body - she is on her way to his tomb early on Sunday morning.  I portrayed her as somber, somewhat in shock at what has happened to him, with the predawn light glistening on her outer robe.  She is 30 something, now tall, strong and healthy after her encounter with Jesus who healed her and cast out the 7 devils that had tormented her.  Soon she'll arrive at the tomb - and the glorious news of the Resurrection will be made clear to her!  And, she in her turn will tell the whole world what has happened!

Copy of Rublev's "Holy Trinity" icon in process

Here's what my copy of Rublev's icon "Holy Trinity" or "The Hospitality of Abraham & Sarah" looked like as it was being painted.  The gilding is done, and the large blocks of color are being laid in place.   It's always tricky to try and photograph gold - the reflections keep blowing away the automatic exposure settings!

Is this perhaps the oldest Christian icon we know of?

I'm working on, and have nearly finished (for now) a moderately large round icon, ca. 22 inches in diameter, that depicts the Baptism of Jesus.  The original is a huge mosaic in the dome of the Arian Baptistry in Ravenna, Italy which dates to ca. 430 A.D.  And yes, Jesus is NOT wearing anything at all.  Didn't bother them.  Doesn't bother me.  Your mileage may vary.  Since I shot this photo I've worked on the details some more.  I needed to clean things up a bit so that I could hang this icon in the ICON SHOW at BETHLEHEM LUTHERAN, 4100 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls - all during Advent 2011.  When working from a mosaic original I find that I have to fight the urge to "go pontillist" (if that's the right spelling of a word that means refer to the school of French 19th Century painters?) and paint itty bitty dots of paint so I would end up with something that looks like a photograph of a mosaic.  I might try that sometime, but not right now.