Resources & Links

St. Mark the Evangelist, by George Kordis

I thought I’d give away a few trade secrets, that is, where I go online for interesting art-related stuff. We’ll pin it to the top of the front page as a tab. I’ll add things as new good and useful stuff comes to light.

Also, a link or two to stuff I’ve created online, like my Spotify playlists… in case anyone else is REALLy into George Harrison…

~

Art and Meaning

Before Chartres Blog (in Italian): “Romanesque Europe was expectation, fear, hope, told in the stones; and it is Chartres that everything changes, and that the marvellous flowering of Romanesque art ends.”

~

Journal of Art in Society: “dedicated to exploring interactions between art, history and social change -- how does art affect society, and how does society affect art?”

~

The Orthodox Arts Journal: articles and news for the promotion of traditional Orthodox liturgical arts. The Journal covers visual arts, music, liturgical ceremony and texts, and relevant art history and theory. The Journal presents these topics together to highlight the unified witness of the arts to the beauty of the Kingdom of God and to promulgate an understanding of how the arts work together in the worship of the Church.

~

How to draw and paint

I’m often asked how someone can learn to Do The Thing; good online or in-person drawing instruction, how to paint egg tempera or Byzz icons.

Juliette Aristides: she’s the author of several need-to-own books on the science of academic, observational drawing. She’s run the Gage Academy drawing and painting school for many years and is one of the best instructors in the world. Her course isn’t cheap, so mostly aimed at those taking a serious stab at getting to a professional level.

~

Sadie Valeri: based in San Francisco, she gives online classes in the classical atelier techniques of academic observational drawing. Suitable for people looking to level up to professional level or for hobbyists.

~

Iconography with Philip Davydov and Olga Shalamova: Solid technical instruction on every aspect of creating icons in the traditional Byzantine way. Philip and Olga are from Russia, but have gone to live in Georgia. Both speak excellent English and that’s the language of the instruction, and both are friendly and approachable. Full programme or individual “lifetime ownership” video-based courses as well as personal mentoring.

~

Julia B. Hayes: is from South African and lives and works in Athens. She studied with the great George Kordis and now teaches iconography from the bottom up, with a strong emphasis on drawing techniques to allow students to create original works, not merely traces or exact copies of existing work. All her instructional videos - which are easy to follow - can be found on her Patreon page, for €5/month. She also has full courses on Udemy and is very active on Facebook on her own page and in many iconography students’ groups. She gives prompt and exacting feedback to students following her courses.

“…most of the workshops available are ‘paint-by-numbers’ where students simply trace and copy an icon without actually understanding what they are doing. The idea that appeared in the 20th century that iconographers must only make exact copies of old icons couldn't be further from the actual iconographic tradition of the Church…tutorials start from the foundation of drawing and composition before progressing to painting with the traditional limited tetrachrome palette.“

~

Antonis Kosmadakis: A Greek iconographer and painter who lives in Crete. Antonis has an active YouTube channel with a lot of useful videos showing the various technical processes of creating icons and painting in egg tempera. He has a Patreon channel and now an online course that will take you through the creation of an icon in the traditional Cretan style from start to finish. He is a very friendly and encouraging guy, not at all scary, with good English and always responds readily to messages on YT and his Facebook page.

~

Aidan Hart: an Orthodox iconographer and author based in Shropshire. He’s the progenitor of the new English school of Byzantine iconography that now has several practitioners who trained with him through his programme with the Prince’s Trust, a school of traditional arts and crafts founded by the Prince of Wales. For now most of his instruction is only available at his annual in-person workshops. But his book, 'Techniques of icon and wall painting: Egg Tempera, Fresco, Secco,' has become the standard text in the English language. He has recently started a Patreon page.

~

“Icon painters, whose aim is to project a sense of divine presence and God-inspired unity inside church space, should attempt to identify artistic solutions that would help them achieve that goal. The Byzantine pictorial system should be used to render present, here and now, that which is imaged.”

George Kordis: a Greek master iconographer, author and teacher. Kordis is considered one of the greatest living iconographers of the Greek Byzantine style. He teaches in-person annual workshops in Athens, and ongoing online classes. Prices are very reasonable. He’s active on Facebook and Instagram.

“Students learn how to draw faces, garments as well as the human figure in various poses and movements. Several approaches to the traditional technique of egg tempera painting are also taught with a view to enabling students to paint their own icon of the bust, or complete figure, of a saint at the end of the course.”

“Byzantine painting is the language of icons, one that has its own principles, set of rules and logos. This logos imbues everything, elevating icons and giving them an ecclesiological function that describes the unity of all things in Christ and makes visible the spirit and ethos of the Church.”

~

OL. of Fatima. A commission completed in 2021. Egg tempera and gold leaf on panel.

Hilary Links

Here’s my Ko-Fi page that has my studio blog, Hilary White; Sacred Art, where you can see some of my painting and drawing work, including progress pics of the various commissions I’ve done and am still working on.

“Christus Patiens”. Graphite on paper, by me.

In the shop you can order high quality art prints of lots of different paintings and drawings and Christmas tree ornaments.

~

Hilary White; Sacred Art Facebook page: where I post random art I find everywhere, comments and descriptions of medieval, Byzantine sacred art and architecture.

Three and a half and already a die-hard Beatles fan.

Spotify playlists: just some music, but also where you will find more George Harrison music than you ever knew existed. Loads of other fun stuff to listen to as well; Buddy Holly, Yes, Dire Straits, Ringo, Pink Floyd, lots of Chant - East and West - Abbess Hildegard, Maddy Prior and Stan Rogers.