Newsletter

A short one

Dear Friend

It is Good Friday for some of you and for others it’s still the profound time of Lent. We will not say anything special except that we feel deeply compassionate about the tragedy with Notre Dame cathedral. May God help the restorers and guide their hands in a good way!
I am sending out this Newsletter because I promised to announce two workshops in the USA I was unpredictably asked to make some days ago.

THE FIRST one this time will be at the New Skete Monastery, where we will paint the Angel with Golden Hair. (Here is the description on our website: http://sacredmurals.com/…workshops_new.html Last year we had good responses about the location – it’s a remote Orthodox monastery with beautiful hills and a very special church. Last year we all enjoyed the meals with the brothers and the contemporary chants at the services. We all thought it was a rare opportunity to live in an enthusiastic monastic community. The climate and atmosphere of the place were very peaceful and prayerful at all levels. The only problem is it can’t be easily reached by public transport. However, if you need a hand getting there, hopefully we can find a solution together.

THE SECOND one continues the series of Drawing workshops in
the Holy Cross Monastery in West Park.

Compared to last year, it’s at the next level. We will draw a full figure. It’s a four day course but, as always, the time will be fully packed. We will do all kinds of exercises in drawing and form building (see the description: http://sacredmurals.com/icon-painting-workshop-ny.htm so that one can feel really confident in drawing the standing figures after this workshop. It’s made for those who would like to step up from tracing, as well as those who have already done lots of freehand drawing. This time we will study the coherence between the forms of human anatomy and the rendering of the human shapes required for an icon.

It’s our third workshop at the Holy Cross Monastery and I am happy to go there again and again. The solemnity of the services, and the very architecture of the church building, provide an inspiring sense of the monastic tradition, which has been kept from the time of the first church fathers to the monks of our time.

And … I cannot share any photos of our new icons because we are still in the process of creating them. For now I will only share my latest mosaic experiment, which I plan to use in an iconostasis soon. As you will see in the photos, I decided not to finish it because it was just a prototype – to assess the unique qualities of the technique. Hope in a month or two to show more finished pieces and hear your responses.

Thank you very much for your time and your interest in our work and workshops!
Yours sincerely,
Philip and Olga