Icons

I teach icon painting. Anyone who wants to learn to paint icons should bring three virtues with them: Patience, love and openness. Everything else can be acquired gradually with a little talent.

Ikonopis requires a good knowledge of wood and its treatment. The wood is the body of the icon, so it must be carefully selected. Only certain pigments are used to make the colours. Each colour is attributed a different spiritual quality.

A good “gesso” (the plaster or chalk undercoat) is creamy and soft like butter, when drying elastic and light and after hardening smooth and hard like stone. For this I use only natural substances and prepare it in the traditional way, like the old man from Mount Athos.

Real gold leaf (24 carat) is used to gild the icons. It symbolises eternity, purity and holiness.