Dear Friends,
We wish you a peaceful and fruitful Lent! May God help you get rid of something you want to get rid of. And, also, may it be a fortunate occasion to do something creative that you have wanted to do for so long!
In this Newsletter:
- Exhibition and workshops in Melbourne
- TRUE FRESCO workshop in Wesley Seminary (Washington DC)
- Exhibition in Moscow
- Inquiries for iconostasis projects
- Interviews
- Advertisement from our class-mate
We have had several events on our itinerary since Christmas, and we are very happy to share them in the hope they may inspire you!
- First – we have had an exhibition: Visions of Beauty and 3 icon workshops in Melbourne, – a General one, a Drawing one, and an Advanced one on Assist Gilding. As always there were multiple challenges, for us and for the students, but we hope that the knowledge gained will help all students give more structure to their art in general, and to their iconography in particular. Mainly what we always try to do is this – not only to give our students certain practical skills, but also to provide them with instruments. Instruments for a multifaceted understanding of their global role as artists and iconographers; considerations and contingent guidelines for a professional approach to their work.
This is the reason why every year we more and more transform our workshops. Most of them are structured to teach different spheres of iconography, providing a multi-resourced approach to one specific subject at a time.
We are glad to share the photographs from these three workshops and, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share!
2. Our next workshop was scheduled for June (Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC), and it was going to be very cool one, but we had to close the registration due to a little number of reigstrants. We regret to say it, and we are sorry for the inconveniences it caused to anyone.
3. One more important event we should mention was a little exhibition of Olga’s graphic works at the Art Library of Bogolubov in Moscow. There were more than 30 works in different mediums. Some were the images, made for the Calendar (we mentioned these in our previous newsletter), and some were made earlier. We think that works on paper are great because they offer great freedom to learn and use our visual language most effectively.
4. These last month’s assignments were very different from our previous ones, because we were asked to design unique iconostases for 5 different churches here in Russia. Not all of these eventuated as final projects, but Philip has invented an interesting mosaic technique for an iconostasis surface decoration and, in hindsight, considers it a great experience. Composing projects is a specific task, but the process of interaction with clients is a very special one. It was cool overall – we learned how to negotiate, and how to research the best iconostasis for each individual church, choosing from hundreds. Boards have been commissioned, and we hope to share the photographs of those icons in the coming months.
5. Of course, it would only be fair to say, that some of these inquiries only happened because of an interview, published in the popular Russian Orthodox online media “Pravmir”. Philip was interviewed in Russian, then Peter Blackwood inspired us to make it available to an English-speaking audience and, with the help of Alexandra Irini, it was possible to translate it. Click the photograph or the link: http://sacredmurals.com/..interview.pdf to read the interview as a PDF file.
Very soon we expect to have another interview. This time with Olga. It has taken several years to finish but we hope it got just got better because of that duration – it’s coming soon!
Now, as we have got the most urgent questions answered, work gets back to normal, and we slowly start thinking about possible programs for the next workshops.
If you have any special ideas, we are happy to hear from you!! Please let us know what you think are the most important problems iconographers face, and we will try to find the best ways to resolve them together.
6. We were again asked to share some information from our friends, and hope it may be of interest to you. This time it’s our former classmate Natalia. We studied with her at the Fine Art Academy. She now owns a travel agency in Saint Petersburg. Here is her info:
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Hi! I am Natalya German-Tsarkova, the owner of Tzar Travel – www.tzar-travel.com.
I am an art history major and that’s why it’s always been a pleasure to share my passion for St. Petersburg with our clients. Our guides share my vision of what a tour should be. They are super qualified, enthusiastic, charming people. We offer visa-free shore excursions for cruise visitors as well as various land tours.
You are welcome to contact us by
email: natalya.german@tzar-travel.com or WhatsApp +7(921)391-18-94.