November 2024

Newsletter November 2024: SELF SELLING ART?

Topics:
1. The Upcoming Courses
2. The Svaneti Film Report
3. Self-Selling Art??
4. Christmas Icons: New & Old
5. Christmas Postcards
6. New Christmas Book
7. "Good Night Child of God"

Dear Friend,
I just realised , it's been a while since we began sharing information about our courses and published our first Newsletter on this website — that was back in November 2013!
Now after 11 years I should go back in time and start every next newsletter with a brief list of our upcoming courses and workshops. I was reminded of this because some people have mentioned that they often miss the course announcements I include later in the newsletter. I'm fixing that right away:

1. OUR UPCOMING COURSES

Online:

Our Online Drawing Course Half Figure Composition starts on January 2, 2025. In this unique course, we teach the professional method of finding the right placement for half-figure images in various formats. It expands the way you approach space and the relationship between the image and the space it occupies.

Our next Egg Tempera Basic online course starts on January 09 2025. This course is perfect for those who are interested in continuing with our Egg Tempera Faces, which begins on March 6, 2025. While we’ve called the first one "Basic," it actually covers a lot of techniques we often don't have time to fully explore in regular practice. We all tend to work with what we already know, but this course offers a real opportunity for deeper exploration.

Offline:

Due to unforeseen renovation work at ACU Art Space, we unfortunately have to cancel our workshops in Melbourne this January. We sincerely apologize to those who have already registered and hope to reschedule all affected workshops for January 2026.

Both of our in-person workshops in the New Skete (Cambridge, NY, USA), starting on April 29 and May 13, 2025, are gradually filling up. We have just heard from Ida, she says there are still some spots left, check the description if you are interested.

Filming in Svaneti Museum

2. SVANETI FILM REPORT

Thank you all for your generous support!!!
We have successfully accomplished our mission in Svaneti and our film director Alla Savina says that we seem to have filmed enough footage for a good film.
Here is my financial report with actual expenses:

Money collected offline: $500

Money collected online via Gogetfunding platform: $4770

ACTUAL EXPENSES:

Film Director plane ticket Moscow - Tbilisi - Moscow - $500

Cameraman plane ticket Moscow - Tbilisi - Moscow- $500

Cameraman one night hotel in Tbilisi - 70 lari - $25

Hotel for 5 people * 6 nights with meals in Svaneti - 3000 lari =$1100

Meals on the way to and from Svaneti 72 + 122 lari = $71

Driver's honoraria - $500

Cameraman's honoraria 120.000 roubles = $1040

Car fuel 460 Lari = $168

Donation to Lahami church - $100

Paypal 6% commission from $4770 collected online - $286

Available budget: $880

Here's an edited version for clarity and flow: --- $500 of this amount will be allocated to preliminary film editing and the production of a professional trailer. In the coming days, Alla will be finding a suitable person to handle the editing and will calculate the estimates for the film production. Additionally, she plans to actively search for platforms that support independent filmmakers like us.

The film should be ready no later than 6 months from now — hopefully, much sooner. As soon as we have any updates, I'll share them with you in our next newsletter. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or feedback.

Thank you once again for every dollar you've contributed to making this project possible! Below is a short video-report:

Stay tuned and check the main page of this project .

3. SELF SELLING ART??

Waking up in a small convent hotel room (where I was staying to assist Dato Sulakauri in painting the Wedding at Cana mural), I opened my eyes and saw a piece of art on the wall (see the photo). A lightning-like thought flashed through my mind:

I loved the beauty of it, especially because it didn’t try to sell itself to me. The image didn’t cry out, “Please, admire me! Look how lovely I am!”

It was created using a technique called "felting," where wool fibers are layered, compressed, and matted together, often by rolling or applying heat and moisture. Here’s a photograph of the piece on the right. Felting What struck me most was how the artist treated the viewer (me) as an equal, worthy of experiencing their art. I wasn’t treated as a potential customer or forced to praise the author’s efforts. Instead, the artist granted me the opportunity to participate in a visual conversation, allowing me to appreciate the beauty without demanding anything in return.

As I looked at the felted flowers, I couldn’t help but think of some contemporary works I’ve seen on social media, where our colleagues showcase their art. And another thought struck me like lightning: What if this is the key difference between art and design?

Industrial design was born to make life more comfortable. Yet, in today’s world, we often measure art against the standards of design: Does this image look like it’s worth the money we pay for it? Did the artist work well enough for their salary? We don’t always vocalize these thoughts, but I think we all feel them when looking at art that "sells itself."

I once thought that professional art makes a sad impression when it lacks sincerity or authenticity. But that morning in the convent, I had a different insight. The final result of any artwork is determined by the goal the artist sets, not by their mood during the creation process.

We can’t scrutinize every brushstroke or pinch of paint, but we do have a choice. In any creative process, the artist has control over what remains and what is erased. If something is left to stay, it means the artist deemed it worthy of representing them as an artist. Traditional Medieval Art in a Museum

Or am I being too maximalist?

To close, I’d like to ask you one final question: If you had to choose between visiting a contemporary church decorated by an unknown artist or going to a traditional art museum with medieval or ancient works, what would you choose?

My thought went on and the last insight was this: I attend museums to detox from the visual intrusiveness of our consumption-driven world. I go there because typical medieval or ancient art never tries to sell itself to you.Instead, it invites you into a friendly visual conversation, suggesting shared values without self-promotion. It’s just like real art should be — generous, open, and unselfish.

As visual people, we’re lucky—our passion is so affordable! We don’t need specialized buildings or expensive devices to access what we love. To enjoy visual art, we don’t need to buy pricey tickets (opera tickets are often more expensive than museum entry). We don’t need to wait for a favorite performer to come to our city or for a beloved band to tour. All we need is our eyes—the simple act of seeing can be done anywhere, without any significant cost.

I believe it’s in the very nature of art to be a message, not a commodity.

4. CHRISTMAS ICONS NEW & OLD

Advent time is approaching, we decided to share some of our latest icons of Nativity of Christ

Some of them were painted on roof tiles and one on an old piece of wood.

Besides, we hve some other new icons on regular gessoed boards:

5. CHRISTMAS POSTCARDS

If you are looking for a postcard, have a look at our Christmas collection at pixels.com, we have 32 images so far.

.

6. A CHRISTMAS BOOK

A very special project, - a book, which Olga had conceived about a year ago. It's a Christmas book printed in a limited edition of 200 signed copies on a large sheet of paper. Actual size of this book is 21 * 14.5 cm (8 * 6 in). This book doesn't have a binding; the sheet is simply cut and folded, but it has two sides, two parallel stories that happened at the same time. One is the story of the birth of John the Baptist, and the other is the story of the Nativity of Christ.

You can look at each side separately if you turn the book the right way. On the red side is the story of John the Baptist, depicted according to the Gospel and the Protoevangelium of James.

The blue side is the story of Christ. This side has both vertical and horizontal pages. The horizontal pages can be opened or can be accidentally flipped. But these very pages create the charm of this book. They serve as transitions from one story to another. And depending on how you turn the book in your hands, you might find yourself in one or the other narrative. You might even get confused, and this is exactly what I like most. This is what makes you feel how the fates of Christ and the Baptist were intertwined, connected. And only at the end, on the last page, I drew the scene of the Baptism, where they meet on the waters of the Jordan.

The text is written in Russian, but if this book will have some success, we plan to print the English version for the next Christmas.

The cost of this book is $20 plus our current most convenient shipping cost is $20 as well, so the total is $40.
To make sure the book arrives to you before Christmas, we accept orders within one week from the date this Newsletter was Published - till November 22, 2024.

if you like to buy it right now, - you can use the button below to pay via Paypal:

If you are interested in pucrhasing this book and you will agree to wait for some time so that we find a cheaper delivery option, please, let us know if you are interested and we will do our best to find an individual method to deliver it to you.

7. GOOD NIGHT CHILD OF GOD

The book with Olga's illustrations which was edited last year is still available. One can order it on the Editor''s website and on Amazon (available in several countries).

Thank you for your invaluable support of all kinds!

With warmest wishes and gratitude,
Philip and Olga

P.S. If you missed our October Newsletter, here it is: The Updated Method

Earlier Newsletters:

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