The retreat group
Rydal Hall prayer garden
Our completed icons
Last week, I went on an icon painting retreat at Rydal Hall, which is the Diocese of Carlisle Conference Centre and home of the Rydal Hall Community. The retreat leader and tutor was Rev’d Christopher Perrins. Painting icons is done in a prayerful and thoughtful way and the images are always strictly copied, you never ‘do your own thing’.
I have painted icons before, though I am not naturally good at it. I find it quite a challenge both artistically and spiritually. On this retreat I chose the icon of the Seventh Angel. Technically, this was a step up from my previous attempts. The angel is referred to in the Book of Revelation Ch. 11 v. 15
The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
The image of the icon is from The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. There is also a poem about the angel.
THE SEVENTH ANGEL
The seventh angel
is completely different
even his name is different.
Szemkel.
He is not like Gabriel
the golden
pillar of the throne
and baldachin.
Nor like Raphael
the choir-tuner
Nor even Azrael
engineer of the planets,
geometer of infinity
splendid exponent of theoretical physics.
Szemlkel
is black and nervous
and has been fined many times
for illegal import of sinners.
Between the abyss
and the heavens
without a rest his feet go pit-a-pit.
His sense of dignity is non-existent
and they only keep him in the squad
out of consideration of the number seven
but he is not like the others
not like the hetman of the hosts
Michael
All scales and feathery plumes
Nor like Azrafael
interior decorator of the universe
warden of its luxurious vegetation,
his wings shimmering like two oak trees
Nor even like Dedrael
apologist and cabalist
Szemkel Szemkel
…the angels complain
Why can’t you be splendid?
The Byzantine artists
when they paint all seven
produce Szemkel
just like the rest
because they feared they might lapse into heresy
if they were to portray him
just as he is
black, nervous
with his old halo tarnished.
So here is my attempt. I made a mistake half way through and had to rescue it with the help of my tutor… Anne
Blank gesso board
Traced image
Then outlined in egg tempera
Applying the gold leaf. This bit is magic!
Most of the gold leaf is on. As you can see, I need to do a bit of touching up
Halo and lettering done. This is the scariest bit… writing on an icon. It’s hard to paint on the gold leaf
Using the membrane technique of iconography, I build up the shadows with layers of dilute paint.
The shadows are nearly finished now.
Shadows finished. Many layers of very watery egg tempera paint. Enough for today
I’m continuing to fill in the colours using layers and layers of very dilute egg tempera. Looks messy
To my eyes, the icon is in a very bad state. I’m assured it will be fine
I have now built up the colour washes and begun creating white highlights on the pink robe. Still blotchy
A disaster with raw umber meant I had to restart it
I’ve been doing the white highlights
And the dark low lights in the (very dangerous) colour of raw umber.
Now I’m colour washing the face, hands and feet in orange
White wash is used to tone down the flesh. I’ve begun the flowers at the bottom
He looks better with hair on. The unruly curls seem to match his personality
It’s finished apart from the border. Assisted guilding on wings done and face rescued to some extent
Finished! What a great week. Big thanks to Rev’d Christopher Perrins our tutor
