Bold New Colors for Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco

Editor’s note: During 2015 and 2016, Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco embarked on a restoration and beautification project. Andrew Gould was hired to develop a new color scheme for the exterior, which had always been painted plain white. Situated in downtown San Francisco, the cathedral is probably the most highly visible Orthodox Church in…

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Notes on Method

St. Mamas of Caesarea by Fr. Silouan Justiniano. Egg tempera on wood, 46 in. x 31 in.    One has to know technique, but one also needs to know art. An icon should be like a ‘painting’, like a prayer written with beautiful letters…There are many craftsmen, but few real iconographers. Make an icon, a…

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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…

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Designing Icons (pt.4): Researching Festal Icons

This is post 4 of 9 in the series “Designing Icons” Aidan Hart gives us a full chapter on designing icons from his book “Techniques of Icon and Wall Painting.” Designing Icons (pt.1) Designing Icons (pt.2): Icon Prototypes Designing Icons (pt.3): New Icons Designing Icons (pt.4): Researching Festal Icons Designing Icons (pt.5): Conventions of Traditional…

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