Pair of Guardian Angel Icons

Jun 23, 2015

I just received the news that the Calgary icons have been gifted so I can update the information here. Yes, there were two icons, not just the one Guardian Angel. But I kept the second icon a secret in case the persons receiving the icons were viewing the journal entries. I've been anxiously awaiting posting both.

Jun 16, 2015

The commission was dropped off to UPS this morning and on its way home. I'll be posting full details after the 23rd, once it has been gifted and I receive the 'all clear'. Oh the suspense! :)

Jun 13, 2015   Commission completed

I've completed the icon commission and wanted to take a few pictures before I gave the icon a final varnish. The glare of the varnish makes taking pictures near impossible without a proper photo studio set up and with adequate room.

I will have an added announcement to make about this commission at the end of this month. So much intrigue with this one and another commission completed the end of May. :-)

So I just need to paint the back of the board and then give the front and sides of the icon a final varnish. After letting it let set for a few days, I can begin wrapping it for shipment early next week.

Jun 11, 2015     Footnote of Angel's hair and hair band

                        Please note that this icon is not completed but wanted to      
                                     show the hair ribbons which I am writing in.

It was explained to me years ago that the manner of depiction for Angel’s hair bands, was that their light blue hair bands, ending in floating ribbons or even white lightning, function as “antennae” to instantly pick up instructions from God. I recently came across another article online which beautifully expands upon why this depiction of an Angel’s hair and hair band is set the way it is.
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The following text is the transcript of the second  lesson on the Theology of Orthodox icons by the workshop for icon-making, delivered on Friday, November 4th, 2005, by father Constantine Strategopoulos, vicar of the Church of the Dormition of the Holy Metropolis of Glyfada, Attica, Greece.

 
“Now let us examine the peripheral, surrounding elements in the icon. There are the angels, which are singing the glory of God; all angels are necessarily depicted with a band around their head. They are always depicted with long hair and always with a ribbon that holds it - and this is a dogmatic element, not a secondary one.  And what does that ribbon signify?  Well, the heavenly powers, like the terrestrial, logical beings - that is, the human beings - are animals-beings with reason.  Man is a "deifiable" animal.  Angels have their minds turned permanently towards God and that is their sustenance.  Even the therapeutic method of the Orthodox Church is directed towards a human that is ill, and, broken down as he is, to turn his mind likewise towards God. That is his therapy.  Turning towards God is his therapy.  Angels, therefore, possess this  quality absolutely - that turn towards God - and especially after the day that the demons fell, but the angels didn't.  What we celebrate on the 8th of November is that stance by the angels - and we also cite in the Divine Liturgy the words "let us stand fast, let us stand with fear" - when the angels did not fall, like Lucifer did.  Following this stand, Saint John of Damascus in one very important dogmatic text - an extremely important dogmatic teaching, both succint and substantial, titled "A Precise Exposition of the Orthodox Faith" - had said (but it is also a dogmatic tradition of the Fathers) that the angels after this incident became impervious towards sin; they can never fall thereafter, because they had "stood fast". This could have been the case with Man also, if he hadn't succumbed to the devil's provocation. That is why the ribbon around the angelic head symbolizes gathering; because that internal magnitude or abstract magnitude of the word "nous" - and not simply "the brain" - cannot be depicted, so, in hagiography, it is with the aid of external symbolisms that I express those things that are not visible.  We, for example, are able to depict prayer hagiographically. But if you ask an artist to "paint a prayer", one might paint something entirely naturalistically, say, a person praying in a forest. Another might paint something more abstract, like a streak of red colour on a white canvas. I don't know how he might depict it.  But we do not resort to naturalistic or abstract means. We express significant meanings with symbolisms.  Thus, because the angels have their minds "gathered" and focused on God, we place a ribbon around their plentiful head of hair (which denotes the plentiful charismas that they possess). That too is a dogmatic element. There are no angels depicted without a ribbon tied around their head. We will notice this detail in other icons with angels also.”

May 31, 2015

I have the base colours sorted out and blocked in. I always begin from the mid tone of each colour and then develop the shading and highlights from there. So I have a ways to go before I reach the mid-stage of writing the icon before I can tackle the gold leafing.

The red bole on the frame and background is only its first quick coat just to get rid of all the white gesso, making it easier to see the colours as they are.

May 30, 2015

Always great to have had a good productive day since my early post yesterday. Got the icon design transferred onto the board, inked in, and set a base coat of red bole as it clarifies colour choices against what will eventually be gold leaf. Now onto beginning putting in some base colours.

May 16, 2015

The good news is that the gift commission is completed and varnished. The bad news is that I won't be able to post a picture of it until the end of June, after it has been gifted. The problem with the gift commissions for those waiting to see the results, but a reassurance for those of you considering gift commissions with me, as you secret surprise is good with me until you give me the 'all clear'.  ;-)