Begun as a demonstration piece, it has a real presence..
Started as a workshop demonstration , thought i might finish it to see if i can do the doors. I can.
Learning from the Franciscan Brother Ignatius. More almost than Aboriginal art,this turns the notions of originality, progress, and the artists ego on its head. I am learning with my son, Damon. This little egg tempera is straight out of Cennino Cennini's instructions. The work when completed then has to be blessed. The artist does not sign the work.
The incised lines serve the purpose of defining the main lines to be copied. The copy should be as exact as possible.The linework in tempera must be as fearless as possible.It requires great concentration,and for the first time in my life,I found myself thinking,"Help guide my hand,Lady". Shocked, I realised I had been praying. Brother just laughed and said" Every little bit helps."
One of the first things that struck me was that icon painting is the direct antecedent of Russian Academism. Bloody obvious now!From working on a gessoed surface,using carbon paper to trace the lines,building the paint in layers from dark to light are all similar. The images are impossible to copy of course,from original to photograph to book to scanner to printer changes the colour, as age and specific pigments have changed the original itself. We are still left with the warning to interpret the "feeling and not the appearance".
After Rublev. The garlic juice used for gilding is hygroscopic, a problem since modern leaf is infinitely thinner than in the past.Harder to work by far!...
studies for my door. Old testament one side, new on other. In icon style.
In Annunciation Mary doesn't realise she is pregnant, and the expulsion from the garden of Eden Eve is looking back and wants to argue the injustice of it all. Adam accepts their fate and drags her away
