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.

GUARDIAN ANGEL, done in egg tempera, natural earth pigments and 24K gold leaf, at St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral school for iconography, NE Minneapolis, MN in October 2013.  The board is solid ash? imported from Russia measuring ca. 13" x 10" x 1 1/8" routed out and coated with marble dust gesso.  My instructor was Dimitri Andriev.  Est. time to write this icon is ca. 55 hours.  To get an idea of the price, call up your plumber or electrician and ask them how much a job lasting 55 hours will cost, then add ca. $200 for "parts" (gold, pigments, board, etc.) :-)   Then, call me or send me an email and we'll discuss terms - remember we have to allow for drying time so the total time from order to delivery is about six weeks.

This is a larger icon of The Annunciation, it measures ca. 20" x 16" x 1.25 " and is done on cherry plywood using acrylic paints.  Hopefully you can zoom in to see details.  The final lettering will be added when everything has dried some more, only the monograms of the Blessed Virgin Mary are in place right now.  Here the Archangel Gabriel greets Mary, who is holding her drop spindle in her left hand.  The red thread on it matches the canopy above her head, which symbolizes the veil in the temple.  I'm thinking I will integrate a silver "gilding" into the ray of light shining on Mary's head.  Everything is gilded in 24K gold leaf.

  So, another icon of the major liturgical events of the Incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is now ready.  To purchase this icon, or to commission one similar to it, please contact me for details and prices.

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.