On arrival in Canterbury

Kind of finished

The start of a pilgrimage

Just another idea
a prototype
the challenge

Vladka - the Vladimirskaya Icon

Two icons of two strong women 14-February-2014.



My final "model" was a blend of three. From left to right:
The "Novgorod", the "Classic" and the "Moscow" Vladimirskaya.











 

This book of Moscow Icons - a gift from my wife for our wedding - had a picture of the "right" Vladimirskaya with the green backgound. The miniatures were less suitable, though.

We went to Moscow in 1991 and the Tretyakov Gallery happened to be  closed for 'remont', so we missed Vladka. We did see other ones though, notably in the Uspensky Sobor.

Some inspiration


1 April 2013 The green paint was the catalyst.

Becket

10 November 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjtWSSWDpJo Entire Movie

http://www.vernonjohns.org/snuffy1186/becket.html

http://trivialbiographies.blogspot.nl/2010/10/thomas-becket.html

Korsunskaya-finished

With a Ukrainian Rushnik  or towel

(Last gold lines added tonight)

Saw this East African woman today, as I left the railway station, wearing some kind of traditional Somalian dress, very bright vermillion in the afternoon light. A shining, almost Marian appearance.

My icon was walking there.

Vyaz (Вязь) or lettering reads:
Korsunsk[a]iya B[ogorodi]tsa - Korsun Mother of God

More about Vyaz: http://russianicons.wordpress.com/

She starts looking at me

Flesh-tones and highlights added
Still, the skin has turned out somewhat darker, (almost African) than originally "planned".
But then, she's in good company...

Częstochowska

Colours-the first numbers

Basic colours applied, except the skin tone [Sankir].
Many more layers of paint will be needed.

I also made a start on [decorative] Shponki.

Korsunskaya - painting by numbers

Lining was completed 2 days earlier, and I am happy about it.
Now it is time for planning asic colours:

1 ivory / off white
2 ochre
3 blue
4 maroon
5 Sankir [olive-brown]
[numbers on pieces of sheet]


I flatter myself that I kind of reproduced the facial expression:
(mirrored and trimmed)

Petrov-Vodkin, Kuzma (1878-1939) - 1914-15
The Mother of God of Tenderness towards Cruel Hearts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuzma_Petrov-Vodkin

Mother of God Korsunskaya

I first saw a picture of the Umilenie or Korsunskaya in the mid eighties. The facial expression and the unconditional love between mother and child made a deep and lasting impression on me. I am trying to recreate that impression.
This is a Bulgarian Umilenie, from Backovo Monastery.

I made the icon board from our old kitchen counter in 2009, and then the process came to a halt. Still, the Korsunskaya never left my thoughts, so I started sketching (for a second time) on New Year's 2012. I intend to work on it every day, and let myself be surprized by the process itself.

The "towel" is called a rushnik [рушник - towel] in Ukranian or a salfetka[napkin] in Russian . This one comes from Kiev.
Excellent information with good photographs on salfetki/ruzhniki can be found on
http://icontraditions.com/display-of-icons-in-a-home

Main page: http://icontraditions.com/

Still from Brothers Karamazov [Mosfilm 1969]




Why bother copying?

He [Birkin] had taken a Chinese 
drawing of geese from the boudoir, and was copying it, with 
much skill and vividness. 

"You are copying the drawing," she [Hermione] said, standing near the 
table, and looking down at his work. "Yes. How beautifully 
you do it! You like it very much, don't you?" 

"It's a marvellous drawing," he said. 

"Is it? I'm so glad you like it, because I've always been 
fond of it. The Chinese Ambassador gave it me." 

"I know/' he said. 

"But why do you copy it?" she asked, casual and sing-song. 
"Why not do something original?" 

"I want to know it," he replied. "One gets more of China, 
copying this picture, than reading all the books." 

DH Lawrence, Women in Love

Nearly finished St. Nicholas Icon

Treated the surface with glair.
The eyes may need some correction.

Saint Nicholas Icon - Nikolay Ugodnik

Lettering done, with minor corrections

Lettering on a transparent sheet

http://picasaweb.google.com/111236938592309037696/Nikolaasikoon2012#slideshow

XAHC u святой Николай

(Hans and Saint Nicholas)

4 November 2012 Sketches
I managed to make a panel from the wolmanized wood, and this is to become the icon board.
The icon on the postcard is called Saint Nicolas of the Door
He is supposed to be the patron of domestic bliss

XAHC would be the cyrillic transcription of my given name, matching the average Russian pronunciation of it.

George and the Dragon

Георгий Победоносец
George the Victor
Leningrad, Nevskij Prospekt, March 1990

Чудо Георгия о змие
The miracle of George and the dragon

I visited Leningrad in March 1990, and it was a revelation. It was a bit of a shock however, to notice that everything centered around obtaining hard currency. Quite a different story from what we had learnt in school about communism. This was the USSR undergoing Perestroika.

Anyway, I bought this lacquer brooch from a street vendor for  very little money, 5 or 10 guilders or deutschmarks, I don't even remember.
We also went tot the Russian Museum, where I learnt about the Novgorod school of icon painting, with its characteristic use of red and green - more or less as used on my icon brooch.

Later I came to meet Sister Florentia in the City of Groningen. She was a nun, a retired teacher and had taken up icon painting as a hobby. She told that for her, icon painting had become a way of living a contemplating life. Contemplation was essential for appreciating icons, she said (or words to that matter). When I told her that I was a non-believer she remarked that, nevertheless, there was something very special about this icon and me: this was a token of this unique experience of making such a special trip to an exotic place (that's what it was in those days).
Such true words, such a wise woman.



And now for something completely different:

A drunk man knocks on the door of an inn known as St. George and the Dragon. The landlady answers. "Is George in?" asks the man.

In the early eighties, my neighbour John Nolan from Wigan(Lancs) used to tell this joke.

The True Icon-Lettering done

Спас Нерукотво́рный 
I added the HOON (omicron, omega, and nu - 'He Who is') lettering today.
Makes a difference, I think.

Gotov

Did the lettering today and applied a glare finish.
One eye changed colour in the process.


www.gafpa.nl

Svet

Painting -or sculpting- has to be done in lost moments. Sometimes I have only a mere quarter of an hour, sometimes a little longer. This picture was taken after dark last night - while I sat musing on how to continue.


www.gafpa.nl

Inspiration while at work

I do not need to hold a brush to be at work.


I am hooked on Russian icons and I am an atheist. The two do go together. While I do respect religions and people's religious feelings, mine is the observer's view.
I think dendrochronologic dating, dna research and a scientific approach might bust quite a myth or two, without diminishing the interest or fascination of the subject.


www.gafpa.nl

Background and lettering

Made the background whiter today, but older paint layers are still visible - like a palimpsest. Lettering on an old sheet, to find out the right position. Did some work on the halo as well... Don't know if I should add lines to the cross' arms (see below).




www.gafpa.nl

Old Church Slavonic

Meanwhile, I started decyphering the callicraphy on the Nerukotvornyi Icon and I got as far as
UBRO[S]' G[OSPO]D[INA] B[O]GA
SP[A]SA NASHEGO I[E?]SA KH[RISTU]SYA
which would mean something like
Image/icon of Jesus Christ, Our Lord God the Saviour
But I am not an expert in Church Slavonic, so I would welcome any comments.

That was yesterday. Found some other texts in a catalog of Early Printed Cyrillic Books today.
...gospoda nashego Isusa Khrista
...rozhdestva Gospoda Boga i spasa nashego Īsusa Khrista
In addition, closer inspection of a detailed scan revealed the reading UBRU[S]
Thus making
UBRU[S] G[OSPO]D[A] B[O]GA
SP[A]SA NASHEGO I[SU]SA KH[RI]STA

UBRUS/OUBROUS seems to denote 'towel' in OCS
according to Wiktionary
Or kerchief - a reference to the Mandylion



www.gafpa.nl

Dancing Tzitziot

Fringes of the tallit (prayer shawl).



Or are they peyos



www.gafpa.nl