The way through the Blue Madonna: an iconographer's beginning

The Blue Madonna: a glass icon

circa 1995, written through me.

My interest in the use of gold leaf goes back to a contemporary fresco 'fragment' that i saw in a Boston show.  don't remember the gallery, don't remember the artist, but i remember the light of the gold.  I used gold decoratively on paper and driftwood , then abandoned it.  years later i discovered Peruvian Imports  verre eglomise hand mirrors, trays and household accessories.  This ignited a desire to combine my love of reverse glass painting with metal leaf.  This is one of my first attempts, loosely based on a fascination with the "Black Madonna".  The black madonna is an icon that deepens with age, eventually turning 'black'.  some of the discoloration towards black may be the inherent nature of the pigments to change over time, the presence of silver may cause a darkening, and the accumulation of  soot from the candles used to illuminate the madonna.

in theological terms an icon is a prayer written through paint and color.  the iconographer listens with an inner ear and in cooperation with the holy spirit 'writes' the image.  all colors have theological meaning.  god calls the iconographer, and all one needs to do to become an iconographer is to copy another icon, the spirit will direct the work.

in this Blue Madonna, i answered a call, but did not know the way.  since this beginning i have gone on to study and teach the way of the icon through workshops offered through my art studio.

as always,

this work is offered up for the comfort of the people.

if you are interested in learning more about glass icon painting, here is an excellent youtube link to the master Byzantine glass iconographers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuvKYES1TdY

questions/comments welcomed by leaving a note here or email to:  elli01930@yahoo.com

From the Mailbag

A few years ago I was playing around with some video clips made with my $100 kodak camera.  Windows Movie Maker couldn't produce the video due to resolution/light issues, so I downloaded a trial home movie maker with a pre-loaded, wacky video editor.  The video I produced gives directions for making egg glue, also known as glair, which is a glue that can be used to adhere gold leaf to a panel.  Last week I received some good questions from Scott Songfeather, a self-taught iconographer: 

following are his questions and my response:

"Researching verre eglomise I was pleased to discover the vids of you at work with the technique and your blog.

1. Is the ratio of snow/crushed ice to the egg white critical? How much snow to egg white is good?

answer:  the ratio isn't critical. I use about 2 tablespoons of snow/crushed ice.
2. Should the egg glue be used immediately, while still cold from the snow/ice?

answer:  the glue sets up to tack pretty quickly and can be used immediately, but it is better to let it sit refrigerated for 24 hours.  the albumen coagulate (chelaga) and other residue should be strained out to create a glue that will flow smoothly onto the surface to be gilded.

3. Is snow/ice necessary, or will water substitute satisfactorily?

answer:  Ralph Mayer in "The Artist's Handbook" has a recipe using 1-2 tablespoons of water. I have never used this recipe, so I don't know the results.  If Ralph says it works, it will work.

I paint icons in egg tempera and recently discovered online the Romanian technique of icon painting reversed on glass (verre eglomise/hinterglasmalerie) and plan to try it. Thus these questions.

Thanks, and best wishes,
Scott Songfeather

Scott provides some excellent pics and directions for writing icons under the username Celadonite on wet canvas. follow this link for his info.

If you have a question/comment that you would like to see answered through this blog, you can leave a comment here or email me at elli01930@yahoo.com

best,
deb