August 2016

Link to the Newest Newsletter:

http://sacredmurals.com/en/2016/11/14/november-2016/

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August 2016

Dear Friends,

That was a loooong silence, – sorrrrry! So much going on, NO time for typing 🙁

And it’s the middle of August already! Started to put together the text and images for publishing… – it’s simply too much for a “Letter” in it’s usual form. What to do, we added WordPress module to our website, for our news to be cooked in a better oven.
(Yes, – they are still too many for one Newsletter, I just hope you may check the sections gradually, one after another, especially since there almost 2 hundreds of photos)…
So, here they are in chronological order:

1.  Last May Olga and myself were invited to make an exhibition of icons and teach an icon workshop in Saint Helen’s church in Abingdon (Oxfordshire, UK).Right for the exhibition Olga painted 5 icons of Early British Saints, one of which was donated to Saint Helen’s parish as a sign of our gratitude. You can see icons individually in a special album, or click the photograph on the right to see them at Saint Helen’s.
2. Right after Britain we have finally completed an article, dedicated to Exhibition of Contemporary Iconographers of Russia and it was published in Orthodox Arts Journal. The OAJ editors informed me it had lots of views, from our side I just have to say it was a hard work even to put together all these most simple words about such an ambiguous. I have also posted some photos at our Flickr, and use this moment to say I am sorry for the color balance on them, – lighting was bad indeed!
3. In the middle of June we had two scheduled icon painting workshops in the USA, and this was as always a great experience for us. First was in Wesley Seminary (Washington DC, for the third time) and second in Gage Academy of Arts (Seattle WA). I uploaded photos to Flickr to show them larger- https://www.flickr.com/photos/25669502@N07/albums/7215766954437647
4. Overwhelming quantity of trips and different events was not good for thoughtful icon painting process, so we made a tumbled glass image of a peacock (with Lev’s help), that brought an idea of adding special “mosaic” section to our “Gallery of Murals” – (right below the frescoes). Picture on the right shows the working process, click it to see more.
5. In the middle of July we were invited to an event near Moscow, called “Laboratorio de Arte Sacra” (because originally this initiative was started by some italian artists in Sicily) – a conference, combined with an exhibition. The participants were mostly artists from Russia with a group of the Italians, who also showed their artworks, architectural projects and shared thoughts. There were lots of icons, mosaics and other images and projects demonstrated, great thoughts discussed: https://www.flickr.com/photos/25669502@N07/albums/72157669560668483
6. Right after this conference Olga and myself visited were honored to visit studio of Irina Zaron and Sergej Antonov. After that – a couple of churches in Moscow, decorated by a famous mosaic master Alexander Kornoukhov, so i decided to put all these images together to keep together contemporary Christian art – 117 photos in total:
   https://www.flickr.com/photos/25669502@N07/albums/72157669560668483
7. Few days after this trip we visited our Fine Art Academy classmate Svetlana Sorokina, who is our old friend, being also a great old fan of Romanesque art, and currently living in France. Her family hosted us and lended us a car, so we had a wonderful opportunity to visit numerous Romanesque churches, see medieval frescoes and carved tympans for almost three weeks.I have uploaded just a few, – please, let me know if among our subscribers there is any serious interest to their most powerful expression and spirituality…
   https://www.flickr.com/photos/25669502@N07/albums/72157672583520536
   And if the interest is serious, I am happy to say, that  we know another person with same love to Romanesque art, and happily he also is a good tour guide! – Here is a little text I am happy to share if anyone wants to see this art in situ.
8. Our friend and Sacred art fan fr. Ilya gotlinsky is planning an icon trip to Russia and trip of Romanesque monuments in Europe in season of 2017. He would like to know how much interest there is as he is currently working on the schedule of his travels for next year. For detail please contact him directly at gotlinsky@msn.com. All updates will be eventually posted to his website www.orthodoxtours.com. all of fr. Ilya’s trips are open to all. He is looking for a fruitful and edifying collaboration with our studio and our students. We personally would like to recommend him as a good friend and courteous and reliable professional we have dealt with.
9. At the end a little diptych of wedding icons by Philip Davydov, painted in spring but only published now:
   
10. And at this moment I finally say a Good by. Thank you for your time and patience and hope you enjoyed reading and watching! Please, let us know your opinion, questions and comments!With warmest regards,
    Philip Davydov (and Olga Shalamova)
    19 August 2016.