American Association of Iconographers

Hildegard of Bingen: A Mystic’s Vision for the Iconographer

The Middle Ages was perhaps the last period in the West to possess a truly living cosmology—a worldview in which mysticism, theology, nature, and everyday life were understood as an inseparable whole. Rather than seeing creation as something separate from God, medieval mystics lived within the conviction that all things exist in God, and God is present in all things.

As iconographers, this is precisely the vision we seek to recover. Every icon proclaims that the material world is capable of revealing the Divine. Wood, pigment, gold, and light become vehicles of grace because the Incarnation forever united heaven and earth.

Among the great mystics who embodied this vision, one stands out as an extraordinary source of inspiration: Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179).

A Woman of Astonishing Gifts

Hildegard of Bingen was a Benedictine abbess, visionary, theologian, composer, scientist, physician, botanist, poet, artist, and philosopher. Few people in history have excelled in so many disciplines. Her remarkable intellect and creativity earned her the title “The Sibyl of the Rhine.”

Born in 1098 in present-day Germany, Hildegard was the tenth child of a noble family. Following the custom of the time, she was dedicated to the Church as a child and entered a Benedictine monastery, taking her vows at the age of fifteen. Within the monastery she received an exceptional education and devoted her life to prayer, study, and the service of God.

From childhood she experienced powerful visions that she understood to be revelations from God. Initially reluctant to speak publicly about them, she eventually believed she had been commanded to write them down. Because women were rarely granted authority to teach theology during the twelfth century, Hildegard sought—and received—papal approval to publish her writings and even to preach publicly.

She later founded her own convent at Rupertsberg near Bingen, where she continued to write, teach, compose music, correspond with emperors, bishops, abbots, and popes, and care for those seeking spiritual and physical healing.

A Universal Scholar

Hildegard’s accomplishments remain astonishing nearly nine centuries later.

In theology, she wrote visionary masterpieces including Scivias (“Know the Ways of the Lord”), richly illustrated with symbolic images that communicate profound spiritual truths. These visionary illuminations continue to inspire artists and theologians alike.

In music, she composed more than seventy liturgical songs whose soaring melodies expanded the musical vocabulary of the medieval Church. Her works are still performed and recorded throughout the world.

As a physician and botanist, Hildegard authored treatises describing the healing properties of more than two hundred plants while exploring the causes and treatment of illness through a holistic understanding of body, mind, and spirit.

Her curiosity even extended to linguistics. She created an entirely original language, the Lingua Ignota (“Unknown Language”), complete with its own alphabet and vocabulary—one of history’s earliest constructed languages.

Her achievements across theology, science, medicine, music, literature, and art established her as one of the great universal scholars of the Middle Ages.

Nature Filled with Divine Light

One reason Hildegard speaks so powerfully to iconographers is her vision of creation.

She saw the natural world as radiant with God’s presence. Mountains, trees, rivers, herbs, stars, and human beings all participated in the life of the Creator. Rather than separating the spiritual from the material, Hildegard saw them as united.

Her writings frequently celebrate what she called viriditas—the “greening power” or life-giving vitality of God flowing through all creation. This image beautifully parallels the iconographer’s task. Icons reveal not merely the appearance of the visible world but its transfigured reality, illuminated by divine life.

Like the icon, Hildegard’s vision teaches us to see beneath appearances into the deeper reality of God’s presence.

Mystic and Prophet

Hildegard was not only a contemplative but also a prophet.

She fearlessly challenged corruption wherever she found it, addressing emperors, bishops, abbots, and even popes with remarkable courage. She often compared herself to the prophet Ezekiel, whose symbolic visions exposed the spiritual failures of his own generation.

For Hildegard, prophecy was never about predicting the future. It was about awakening people to truth.

Prophets, she believed, illuminate the darkness. They call people to responsibility, repentance, justice, and deeper communion with God.

Her book Scivias invites readers to “know the wise ways” rather than the foolish ones. Her other major works—including Liber Vitae Meritorum (Book of Life’s Merits), De Operatione Dei (The Book of Divine Works), Physica, and Liber Compositae Medicinae—combine theology, ethics, medicine, natural science, and spiritual wisdom into a unified vision of human flourishing.

Throughout her writings she repeatedly emphasizes one practical virtue: usefulness. The purpose of knowledge, prayer, and creativity is not self-glorification but the building up of God’s people.

Saint Hildegard Icon written by Christine Hales

Lessons for Today’s Iconographer

Hildegard’s life offers profound encouragement for those called to write icons.

She reminds us that artistic excellence and deep spirituality are not separate pursuits but expressions of the same vocation. The iconographer must cultivate prayer, theological understanding, careful observation of creation, disciplined craftsmanship, and openness to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

She also teaches us that creativity flourishes when rooted in contemplation. Because Hildegard remained faithful to her mystical experiences while embracing music, medicine, science, theology, and art, she models an integrated life in which every gift serves God.

Perhaps this is why she continues to inspire Christians from many traditions. Her work points toward a unity that transcends divisions—a unity grounded in the conviction that all truth belongs to God.

In 2012, Hildegard of Bingen was declared a Doctor of the Church, becoming only the fourth woman to receive this distinction. She is also widely honored as a patron of ecology because of her profound understanding of humanity’s relationship with creation.

For iconographers, her life serves as a reminder that our work is not simply the production of sacred images. It is participation in God’s ongoing work of revealing His glory through the beauty of creation.

When we grind pigments, lay gold leaf, or prayerfully draw the face of Christ or one of His saints, we participate in the same sacramental vision that Hildegard proclaimed nearly nine hundred years ago—a world alive with Divine Light.

Viriditas, is a latin term for “greenness”, a concept Hildegard used for healing as a metaphor for the divine life force, vitality, and the healing energy that permeates all of nature and the human soul. In iconography, we could equate that concept with the concept of the uncreated light that icons capture. The light of God as distinct from the light of the sun. Viriditas was “the greening power of God.” It was in everything, including humans. This “greenness” was an expression of heaven, the creative power of life

I hope this blog is of interest and look forward to hearing your comments!

Blessings,

Christine Hales

Suggested Reading

Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, text by Hildegard of Bingen with commentary by Matthew Fox
Christian Mysticism by Manuela Dunn Mascetti
Hildegard’s own writings, including Scivias, The Book of Divine Works, Physica, and Book of Life’s Merits

Interesting Links for Iconographers:

Betsy Porter hosts regular Zoom get togethers for all iconographers. She is an iconographer in California and a member of St. Gregory’s Church. To get on her mailing list for zoom links, visit her website: Betsy Porter

Dorothy Alexander holds an Icon writing get together for iconographers , also in California. To get on her email list, contact me – she doesn’t seem to have a website.

My Internet Accounts

https://newchristianicons.com my main website
Https://christinehalesicons.com Prints of my Icons
https://online.iconwritingclasses.com my online pre-recorded icon writing classes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2WoRDiPivGtz2aw61FQXA My YouTube Channel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHalesFineArt or https://www.facebook.com/NewChristianIcons/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehalesicons/?hl=en
American Association of Iconographers: FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371054416651983
American Association of Iconographers Website: https://americanassociationoficonographers.com
9. my Patreon Account: christinehalesfineart

The Bride With the Ring on Her Finger

Saint Catherine of Alexandria and the Power of the Sacred Image

Feast Day · November 25 · Virgin & Martyr Patron of Philosophers · Scholars · Clergy · Young Women

Dear Fellow Iconographers — I’ve been deep in research for a commission of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and I find myself compelled to share what I’ve discovered. The story of this saint has at its very heart a small panel painting of the Virgin and Child that changes a woman’s eternal life.

The hard facts about Catherine’s biography are almost nonexistent. Scholars are fairly confident she was not a historical figure at all. And yet — precisely because her legend was free from the weight of documented biography — her story became a vessel that could carry some of the most luminous theology of the late Middle Ages. She became immensely beloved. The absence of fact left ample room for spiritual truth that is significant to us all.

The Impossible Suitor

According to legend, Catherine was the daughter of King Kostos of Alexandria — beautiful, fiercely intelligent, and devoted to philosophy above all else. When her family pressed her to marry, she agreed on one condition she knew no earthly man could meet: her husband must equal her in nobility, wisdom, beauty, and wealth. Faced with this impossible standard, her mother consulted a hermit who lived beyond the city walls. He said he knew of a suitable candidate who exceeded even Catherine’s requirements in every way — and to introduce her to this suitor, he gave her a panel painting of the Virgin and Child. He told her to take it home, and that evening, alone, to pray before it and ask the Virgin to show her her Son.

The Icon That Opened a Vision

That evening, Catherine knelt before the icon and prayed. She fell asleep, and the Virgin appeared — but the Christ Child kept His face turned away. No matter how Catherine moved around the vision, He would not look at her. She overheard the Virgin asking her Son whether Catherine pleased Him by her beauty, her wisdom, her birth, her wealth. Each time, the Child answered that Catherine was exactly the opposite of what the Virgin described. He told her: return to the hermit, follow his teaching, and come back the following evening.

St. Catherine and the Hermit, Andrea Di Bartoli

The next morning Catherine went to the hermit, received instruction in the Christian faith, and was baptized. That night, when she knelt again before the image, the Madonna appeared immediately. This time the Child looked directly at Catherine — and His gaze was so radiant that she fell to the ground as though dead. The Virgin raised her up. The Son declared that now Catherine was truly beautiful, wise, noble, and wealthy, and that He was ready to take her as His perpetual spouse. The Virgin took Catherine’s hand, and Christ placed His ring upon her finger.

When Catherine came to herself, the ring was still there.

Anonymous (German). ‘Scenes from the Life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria,’ ca. 1430-1450. oil on wood. Walters Art Museum (37.2638): Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Brandt, 1988.

Note for iconographers: The panel painting in this legend is not decoration — it is the instrument of encounter. The image acts as the necessary intermediary between earthly and transcendent reality. And the vision it opens is not merely interior: it involves the body. Catherine finds the ring on her finger. This is precisely the theology we invoke every time we pick up a brush.

The Soul as Bride of Christ

Theologians of the late thirteenth century shaped this legend deliberately. Catherine becomes a type of the contemplative soul — any soul, not only a nun’s — that withdraws from the distractions of the world to be wholly the bride of Christ. She is a model for women who wish to live a deeply religious life while remaining in secular surroundings. Her story says: the sacred marriage is available to you. The icon on your wall can be the beginning of it.

“My beloved is mine, and I am his.” — Song of Songs 2:16

The Wheel, the Sword, and the Milk

The rest of the legend unfolds with the fierce beauty characteristic of the great martyrs. The Emperor Maxentius ordered fifty philosophers to argue her out of her faith — all fifty were instead converted by her, and burned. He threw her in prison; a dove fed her daily from heaven; Christ Himself visited her cell and promised her a crown of glory. When she refused to marry him, declaring her spouse was already Jesus Christ, he condemned her to the spiked breaking wheel. At her touch, it shattered. She was beheaded. From her neck flowed milk, not blood.

In the sixth century, the Emperor Justinian established what is now Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt, built around the site of the burning bush of Moses. It has been a place of pilgrimage and miraculous healing for fifteen centuries.

Why She Matters to Us

We paint icons because we believe what the Catherine legend enacts: that the sacred image is not illustration but threshold. It is a place where the invisible agrees to become visible, where the transcendent condescends to the material, where a woman can fall asleep before a small panel painting and wake with a ring on her finger.

Master of the Misericordia, St. Catherine oA alexandria

Among the fourteen most helpful saints, Catherine stands as patron of those who love wisdom. In our work, she reminds us that the image we are writing participates in a story far older and stranger than we can fully see. We are not simply illustrating theology. We are making a threshold.

Researched for a commission of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Saint Catherine’s feast day is November 25.

Thanks so much for reading! Here are my other websites if you’d like to see some of my work!

Have a blessed June!

Christine

LINKS For Christine Simoneau Hales 2026

https://newchristianicions.com my main website
Https://christinehalesicons.com Prints of my Icons
https://online.iconwritingclasses.com my online pre-recorded icon writing classes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2WoRDiPivGtz2aw61FQXA My YouTube Channel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHalesFineArt or https://www.facebook.com/NewChristianIcons/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehalesicons/?hl=en
American Association of Iconographers: FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371054416651983
American Association of Iconographers Website: https://americanassociationoficonographers.com

“Make Me An Instrument Of Your Peace”

Painting Saint Francis: A Contemplative Reflection

Dear Friends,

As I begin work on an icon of Saint Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio for my upcoming class at Holy Cross Monastery, I find myself reflecting less on the historical details of Francis’s life and more on the spiritual movement within it—the slow transformation of a human heart toward God.

Prayer Attributed to Saint Francis, Image of Saint Francis by Cimabue

Icons often teach us long before they are finished. While preparing the board, laying the ground, and beginning the first lines of the drawing, I realize that Saint Francis’s life itself unfolds like an icon written in stages.

Francis did not begin as a saint. He began as many of us do—comfortable, admired, and confident in worldly success. Yet illness, disappointment, and prayer opened a space within him where God could speak. His conversion was not sudden perfection but a gradual awakening.

St. Francis Icon Hales

Again and again, Francis encountered Christ in unexpected places: in solitude, in poverty, in the suffering face of the leper, and finally before the crucifix at San Damiano. When he heard the words, “Repair my house,” he responded with simplicity. He did not yet understand their full meaning; he simply acted in faith.

This is deeply iconographic.

When we begin an icon, we do not see the finished image clearly. We proceed step by step—layer upon layer—trusting that illumination will come through obedience to the process. Francis lived in this same spirit of obedience. By renouncing wealth and security, he allowed his life to become transparent to divine light.

Francis teaches us that holiness is not escape from the world but reconciliation with it. Seeing all creation as brother and sister, he recognized the presence of God shining through every living thing. Peace with nature flowed from peace with God.

St. Francis and thee Wolf — St. Francis and the Wolf by Christine Hales

The story of the Wolf of Gubbio expresses this beautifully. Francis did not conquer the wolf; he restored relationship. Violence ceased when fear gave way to compassion. The icon reminds us that peace begins in the conversion of the human heart.

As iconographers—and as Christians—we are invited into the same work. We repair the house of God first within ourselves. Through prayer, humility, and attention, the hard surfaces of the heart are gradually burnished until they reflect Christ’s light.

While painting Saint Francis, I am reminded that the icon is not only an image of a saint. It is also a question addressed to each of us:

St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata by Giotto — St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, by Giotto

Where is God asking me to bring peace?
What must I release in order to follow Christ more freely?
How might my own life become a window into divine love?

May Saint Francis intercede for us, teaching us to walk gently, to live simply, and to recognize all creation as a sacred gift.

With gratitude and peace,

Christine Simoneau Hales, Iconographer

LINKS For Christine Simoneau Hales 2026

https://newchristianicions.com my main website
Https://christinehalesicons.com Prints of my Icons
https://online.iconwritingclasses.com my online pre-recorded icon writing classes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2WoRDiPivGtz2aw61FQXA My YouTube Channel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHalesFineArt or https://www.facebook.com/NewChristianIcons/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehalesicons/?hl=en
American Association of Iconographers: FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371054416651983
American Association of Iconographers Website: https://americanassociationoficonographers.com

Giotto and the Living Tradition of Icons

Reflections for Iconographers

When I finally have time to pray and reflect on the direction my iconography is leading me, I often discover that artistic questions are also spiritual questions. Recently, my thoughts have returned again and again to Giotto, the great Italian painter of the late 13th and early 14th centuries.

If I listen carefully to that still, small voice guiding my work, I sense an invitation to understand Giotto more deeply — not only visually, but spiritually. His art seems to stand at a threshold: faithful to the sacred language of icons while opening new ways for humanity and incarnation to be seen in Christian art.

I share these reflections in the hope that they may inspire you — whether through Giotto himself or through whatever artistic path God is unfolding within your own practice.

The Artistic World Giotto Inherited

Giotto did not emerge in isolation. The world into which he was born brought together four powerful artistic traditions:

Byzantine Art arrived from the Christian East. Its forms were austere, hierarchical, and spiritually focused. Figures appeared frontal, solemn, and often flattened against gold backgrounds, emphasizing transcendence over earthly realism. The icon was never merely decorative — it was theological vision made visible.

Romanesque Art blended classical Roman inheritance with native European expression. Geometry, symbolic animals, and decorative motifs dominated, reinforcing sacred order rather than individual psychology.

Gothic Art began introducing greater emotional expression and observation of the natural world. Figures gained movement, narrative clarity, and human presence.

Classical Influence quietly persisted beneath all these styles, preserving an awareness of volume, structure, and bodily presence inherited from antiquity.

Giotto stood precisely at the convergence of these traditions.

St. Francis Altar Piece, Bonaventura Berlinghieri 1235

From Icons to Narrative Devotion

By the late 12th century, Italian religious art was already evolving. Devotional imagery moved through a clear progression:

monumental crucifixes,
Marian icons,
and eventually painted panels narrating the lives of saints.

These panels, commissioned for churches, chapels, and altars, often included narrative side scenes recounting a saint’s life in vivid detail. They functioned much like extended icons — inviting contemplation through story as well as presence.

Here we begin to see the seeds of Giotto’s transformation.

Giotto’s Breakthrough

Early masters such as Pietro Cavallini were already experimenting with greater naturalism when Giotto arrived in Rome. Yet Giotto accomplished something profoundly new.

He carried forward the theological seriousness of Byzantine iconography while reintroducing human weight, emotion, and spatial reality.

His greatest works moved beyond panel icons into large narrative fresco cycles. Figures became monumental and grounded. Saints occupied believable space. Gestures conveyed relationship and interior life.

Giotto did not abandon the sacred purpose of images — he deepened it.

Where the icon proclaims eternity breaking into time, Giotto allowed viewers to experience salvation history unfolding within human experience itself.

The Circle Around Giotto

Giotto’s influence quickly shaped the next generation.

Bernardo Daddi, a younger contemporary, absorbed Giotto’s solidity of form while retaining the refined decorative elegance associated with the Siennese school.

Meanwhile, Duccio of Siena brought Byzantine inheritance into a lyrical and expressive direction. His rhythmic lines and luminous colors communicate joy and hope within sacred narratives. Though deeply indebted to icon tradition, Duccio expanded emotional storytelling within devotional painting.

Together, these artists demonstrate that tradition is never static. The iconographic vision was not abandoned; it was translated for new spiritual needs.

Technique, Craft, and the Artist’s Life

The technical continuity of this period is preserved in the remarkable treatise by Cennino Cennini, The Craftsman’s Handbook. Written in the early 15th century and deeply influenced by Giotto’s legacy, the text reveals the working life of medieval painters.

Cennini describes everything from preparing pigments and panels to fresco technique and gilding. What emerges is not merely instruction but a worldview: the artist as disciplined craftsman serving sacred purpose.

For iconographers today, this continuity is striking. Many of us still grind pigments, prepare panels, and apply gold in ways recognizable to these early masters. The physical practice itself becomes prayer.

Giotto and the Iconographer Today

Why does Giotto matter to iconographers?

Because he reminds us that fidelity to tradition does not mean immobility.

Icons reveal the transfigured world — humanity illuminated by divine light. Giotto’s achievement was to show that the Incarnation also sanctifies human emotion, gesture, and lived experience.

He stands not as a rejection of iconography but as one of its great interpreters.

For those of us writing icons today, his work asks an important question:

How do we remain faithful to the theological vision of the icon while speaking meaningfully to the spiritual eyes of our own time?

A Personal Reflection

As I continue my own journey in iconography, I find myself increasingly grateful for artists like Giotto who listened deeply to both tradition and inspiration. Their courage encourages us to remain attentive to where the Holy Spirit may be guiding our work.

Perhaps your inspiration will not come from Giotto. Perhaps it will arise from a saint, a text, a teacher, or a quiet discovery in your studio.

But when that inspiration arrives, it is worth following.

Sacred art has always grown this way — through prayer, attention, and faithful response.

And in that sense, the icon tradition is not behind us.

It is still unfolding.

Blessings and prayers,

Christine Hales

Sources: “The World of Giotto”, C. 1267-1337, Time-Life Books, Sarel Eimerl

My Internet links: LINKS For Christine Simoneau Hales 2026

American Association of Iconographers Website: https://americanassociationoficonographers.com

https://newchristianicions.com my main website

Https://christinehalesicons.com Prints of my Icons

https://online.iconwritingclasses.com my online pre-recorded icon writing classes

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2WoRDiPivGtz2aw61FQXA My YouTube Channel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHalesFineArt or https://www.facebook.com/NewChristianIcons/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehalesicons/?hl=en

American Association of Iconographers: FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371054416651983

Guarding the Archetype

Reflections on Constantine Cavarnos’ Guide to Byzantine Iconography

This month I would like to share several reflections drawn from Constantine Cavarnos’ important work, Guide to Byzantine Iconography. For those of us laboring in our studios today, the questions he raises remain foundational:

How do we create new icons for contemporary Christians while faithfully preserving the original intentions of the earliest sacred images?

The Formation of Hieratic Types

In the early centuries of Christian art, the Church Fathers recognized the necessity of establishing hieratic types—sacred prototypes that would serve as authoritative visual theology. These were not merely artistic conventions. They formed a coherent, didactic, allegorical system intended to guide both iconographers and the faithful.

John the Baptist Icon by Christine Hales

Cavarnos writes:

“The purpose of depicting these consecrated types was to contribute to the edification of the faithful… Through them, the Church recommends to the faithful a hidden, spiritual teaching.”

The earliest biblical scenes—many preserved in the frescoes of the Roman catacombs (2nd–4th centuries)—already demonstrate this theological intentionality. The selection of subjects was not arbitrary. It was shaped by the symbolism of the Gospels and Apostolic writings, and guided by the Spirit within the life of the Church.

The Long Refinement of the Archetypes

St. John, the hut dweller and Paul of Thebes, Greek-Cretan Icon 15-17th centuries

Photios Kontoglou expresses this development with particular clarity:

“The archetypes of Byzantine Iconography are the result of centuries of spiritual life, Christian experience, genius, and work. The iconographers who developed them regarded their work as awesome, like the dogmas of the true Faith, and they worked with humility and piety, on types that had been handed down to them by earlier iconographers, avoiding all inopportune and inappropriate changes. Through long elaboration, these various representations were freed from everything superfluous and inconstant, and attained the greatest and most perfect expression and power.”

This passage is worth lingering over. The archetypes were not invented in a moment of individual inspiration. They were purified over centuries—stripped of the accidental, the sentimental, and the merely fashionable—until they achieved distilled spiritual clarity.

What remains is not stylistic rigidity, but theological precision.

Why We Copy Pre-Renaissance Icons

Most of us were trained with the guidance: copy icons from before the Renaissance. Cavarnos and Kontoglou help us understand why.

From the Renaissance onward, Western art increasingly emphasized naturalism, individual expression, and worldly concerns—even within Christian subject matter. The center of gravity shifted toward human emotion and physical realism.

By contrast, the Byzantine tradition preserved the ancient archetypes. Because it maintained continuity with the established types, it retained its spiritual luminosity and theological integrity. The icon remained what it was intended to be: not a window into psychological narrative, but a window into eternity.

To copy pre-Renaissance icons, then, is not antiquarianism. It is fidelity to a theological vision refined by centuries of ecclesial experience.

Christ Redeemer Icon written by Christine Hales 2026 — Christ Redeemer Icon, written by Christine Hales

Our Responsibility in the Studio

For those of us creating icons today, the task is both humble and demanding:

To revive the archetypes with reverence.
To avoid unnecessary innovation.
To allow the forms to shape us rather than imposing ourselves upon them.
To participate in a tradition that is larger than our individual artistic impulse.

If the early iconographers regarded their work as “awesome, like the dogmas of the true Faith,” then so must we.

May these reflections strengthen and give wings to your holy practice. May our work, grounded in the consecrated types, continue to edify the faithful and communicate the hidden, spiritual teaching entrusted to the Church.

Until next month,
Christine Hales
Artist / Iconographer

Interesting Links For Iconographers:

International juried exhibition of contemporary sacred art The Light of the Logos (Svetlost Logosa), which will take place 1–16 September 2026 at the Kolarac Endowment Gallery in Belgrade, Serbia. OPEN CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: https://kaleidoskop-media.com/svetlost-logosa/open-call-the-light-of-the-logos-2026. Short video from last year’s edition: https://youtu.be/pP7KpbV_6lU

From Dorothy Alexander, Santa Barbra CA, An Orthodox Liturgical Arts Retreat is being offered at Echo Park, CA (7.26 – 8/1/26). 1) Mosaic and Repoussé/Sgraffito and 2) Egg Tempera Iconography. Micah Andrews is a mosaic master and we are also blessed to have Dr. Victoria Brennan presenting and teaching. Contact Dorothy Alexander by email or text for more information, dotalexander@westmont.edu, or (805) 708-0453.

LINKS For Christine Simoneau Hales 2026

https://newchristianicions.com my main website
Https://christinehalesicons.com Prints of my Icons
https://online.iconwritingclasses.com my online pre-recorded icon writing classes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2WoRDiPivGtz2aw61FQXA My YouTube Channel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHalesFineArt or https://www.facebook.com/NewChristianIcons/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehalesicons/?hl=en
American Association of Iconographers: FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371054416651983
American Association of Iconographers Website: https://americanassociationoficonographers.com

The Living Icon

Greetings Friends and Fellow Iconographers:

I am spending more time re-reading some of my icon related books and want to share with you this months some of the insights I found in : “The Avant-Garde Icon, Russian Avant Gard Art & The Icon Painting Tradition” by Andrew Spira. I really like the clarity of thought here about what is important to carry forward in our contemporary icons. I hope you enjoy it!

At the heart of the icon lies a radical claim: the presence of an Absolute in the world. This is the underlying principle that distinguishes the icon from all other forms of religious art. The definitive characteristic of the icon is not stylistic consistency or historical fidelity, but its metaphysical identity. An icon does not simply depict holiness—it participates in it.

For iconographers today, this distinction is crucial. The challenge is not merely to preserve a tradition, but to remain in living relationship with it. The struggle to create an art form capable of communicating the mystery of the incarnate God has shaped icon painting from its earliest beginnings. Because God became flesh, matter itself became capable of bearing divine presence. Icon painting is therefore an innately sacred art, one that originates in—and continues through—the reality of the Incarnation.

Icons as Encounter with God

A sixth-century tradition tells us that the first icon was of the Madonna and Child, painted from life by the Apostle Luke. Whether taken literally or symbolically, this story reveals something essential about the nature of iconography: icons arise from encounter, not abstraction. They are born from witness, prayer, and lived experience rather than from theory alone.

Icons are replete with symbolic meaning, but their power lies in more than symbolism. Their narrative and didactic conventions—long associated with the transmission of Truth—operate on both conscious and subliminal levels. For the iconographer, fidelity to these conventions is not a matter of imitation for its own sake, but an act of participation in a sacramental language. Adherence to both the symbolic and sacramental significance of the icon is essential to its true identity.

The iconographic tradition reached one of its highest expressions in the work of the Russian monk Andrei Rublev (c. 1370–1430). His Old Testament Trinity became a defining image of Orthodox theology precisely because it does not explain the Trinity—it reveals it. Drawing on Genesis 18, Rublev’s use of three angels to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit allows the viewer to encounter the unity of the Godhead through contemplation rather than analysis. The icon silently discloses divine mystery to the inner eye and the receptive heart.

Yet even living traditions can lose their interior vitality. In sixteenth-century Russia, efforts to preserve iconography led to the Hundred Chapters Council (Stoglav) of 1551. Iconographic manuals were introduced to formalize and regulate canonical forms. While this development was consistent with long-standing practices of copying prototypes, it also signaled a deeper shift. The contemplative spirit that had sustained the tradition from within no longer prevailed with the same force.

Dangers of Losing the Contemplative Spirit

A subtle transformation followed. Icon painters continued to reproduce established models, but increasingly focused on external form rather than inward engagement. Copying, once a sacramental act rooted in prayer and insight, risked becoming an exercise in technical replication. The icon was still produced correctly, yet no longer always created from within the living current of the tradition.

This historical moment speaks directly to contemporary iconographers. In our own time, the desire to create an art that is both accessible and faithful often leads us back to Byzantine models. But the question remains: are we copying in order to conform, or copying in order to participate?

Myself working on the Confession of Saint Peter Icon

Exploring the potential of icons within the modern world requires more than technical mastery or historical accuracy. It calls for a renewed commitment to the transcendental nature of the icon itself. For the iconographer today, tradition is not a fixed archive but a living inheritance—one that demands not only discipline of hand, but attention of heart.

A Closing Reflection for the Contemporary Iconographer

For those of us working within the iconographic tradition today, the essential question is not whether we are faithful to the models we inherit, but how we are faithful to them. Technique, historical knowledge, and canonical accuracy matter deeply—but they are not sufficient on their own. Without interior attentiveness, they risk becoming ends rather than means.

Importance of Prayer and Humility

The tradition reminds us that copying was never intended to be a mechanical act. It was, and remains, a sacramental discipline: a way of submitting the self to a form that reveals more than it contains. When approached with prayer, humility, and discernment, the act of copying becomes a participation in the same contemplative vision that gave rise to the prototype in the first place.

In a contemporary context—where icons are often encountered as cultural artifacts, aesthetic objects, or commodities—the iconographer is quietly entrusted with a different responsibility. Our task is not to innovate for novelty’s sake, nor to preserve forms as relics of the past, but to allow the icon to remain what it has always been: a place of encounter between the visible and the invisible.

My Baptism of Jesus Icon at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, Saint Petersburg

The enduring challenge, then, is this: to work with discipline without rigidity, tradition without nostalgia, and creativity without self-assertion. When the iconographer remains attentive to the spiritual source of the tradition, the icon continues to speak—not as an echo of history, but as a living witness to the incarnate God in the present moment.

Please share your thoughts or ideas for future posts! Many thanks for following and you are all in my prayers, for God’s blessings to go before you as you work on His icons.

Blessings,

Christine

My Links: https://newchristianicions.com my main website

Https://christinehalesicons.com Prints of my Icons

https://online.iconwritingclasses.com my online pre-recorded icon writing classes

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2WoRDiPivGtz2aw61FQXA My YouTube Channel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHalesFineArt or https://www.facebook.com/NewChristianIcons/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehalesicons/?hl=en

American Association of Iconographers: FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371054416651983

American Association of Iconographers Website: https://americanassociationoficonographers.com

The Substance of Things Seen: Creating Contemporary Icons for the Christian Community

Inspired by Robin M. Jensen

Detail, Trinity Icon. written by Christine Hales. after Andre Rublev

Christian art has never existed merely to decorate sacred spaces or to please the eye. At its best, it has served the Church as a theological language—one that gives visible form to invisible truths and nurtures worship practices that are both spiritually vital and theologically rooted. In The Substance of Things Seen, Robin M. Jensen articulates with clarity the indispensable role of art in Christian theology, worship, and communal life. Her insights are particularly relevant today as artists and iconographers seek to create contemporary icons that speak faithfully within modern contexts while remaining rooted in tradition.

Art as a Theological Practice

Christian art, and iconography in particular, occupies a unique place within the life of faith. Icons do not simply illustrate doctrine; they participate in it. They promote an ongoing conversation between faith and art—one in which visual form, prayer, and theology are inseparably linked. As Jensen reminds us, art within the Christian tradition is not neutral. It shapes belief, informs devotion, and forms the imagination of the worshiping community.

Yet this formative power carries responsibility. “If we remember that imitations are secondary things,” Jensen writes, “meant to guide us or inspire us toward the truth but not to substitute for it, we may avoid confusing objects with values or beautiful things with beauty itself.” The icon, then, is not an end in itself. It is a means—an invitation toward encounter rather than a replacement for the divine reality it signifies.

Icon Writing as Spiritual Formation

Within this framework, contemporary icon writing can be understood not simply as an artistic discipline but as a process of spiritual formation. Icon writing classes, when properly grounded, are aimed at producing visible images that point far beyond themselves. Creation and formation unfold together. The artist is shaped even as the image takes form.

This understanding resonates deeply with the Christian conviction expressed in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “We see not the truth itself, but are being transformed as we behold.” The thing we see is not the truth itself, but a means of encounter with the truth. In icon writing, the slow, prayerful process—layer upon layer of pigment, prayer, and contemplation—mirrors the gradual transformation of the human heart.

Seeing, Meaning, and Community

Jensen also reminds us that the perceived meaning of any work of art depends upon the experience, social location, interests, needs, and predispositions of its audience. Icons are not viewed in a vacuum. They exist within communities, cultures, and lived realities. Contemporary iconography must therefore attend carefully to context—not by abandoning tradition, but by allowing tradition to speak into the present moment with discernment and humility.

My Saint James Icon being blessed by Bishop Carlos in Santiago Spain

The icon does not record a particular physical appearance so much as it gathers and focuses prayer. It helps the viewer sense the invisible presence of the one to whom prayer is addressed. In this sacred exchange, the viewer does not merely look at the image but is invited to look through it. The icon serves as a medium of prayer directed toward a reality beyond the painted surface.

Holy Places and Sacred Spaces

My Nativity Icon at Church of the Redeemer, Sarasota, FL

This sacramental understanding of images naturally extends to architecture and sacred space. A holy place is traditionally understood as a meeting point between heaven and earth—a site where the divine presence has manifested, a gateway between the visible and the invisible. In this sense, all architecture functions iconically, and religious architecture does so in a particularly concentrated way.

Like painted icons, sacred spaces manifest ideas in nonverbal form, functioning symbolically at both the most mundane and the most profound levels. Depending on how it is viewed and used, a religious space may mediate or even “contain” holy presence in much the same way as a traditional icon painted on a wooden panel.

Toward a Faithful Contemporary Practice

Creating contemporary icons, then, is not about innovation for its own sake. It is about faithfulness—faithfulness to theological truth, to liturgical life, and to the formative power of sacred art within Christian community. Drawing on the wisdom articulated by Jensen, contemporary iconographers are invited to see their work not merely as aesthetic production, but as participation in the Church’s ongoing act of seeing, praying, and becoming.

In this way, the substance of things seen becomes a pathway toward the mystery of things unseen—and the icon remains what it has always been at its best: a window into divine presence, held in humility, reverence, and prayer.

Wishing you all a blessed and joyous New Year!

Christine Hales

https://newchristianicons.com

Interesting Links for Iconographers:

Religious symbolism- Explained by Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/religious-symbolism History and symbolism of Iconography

History and symbolism of Iconography – Monastery Icons

Introduction to Icons: Patristix

Sacred Spaces: Richard Vosko, God’s House is Our House, Reimagining the Environment for Worship, Liturgical Press; and also by Richard Vosko. Art and Architecture for Congregational Worship: The Search for a Common Ground.

Discover the Spiritual Depth of Icons and Saints

Two Books That Open the Heart Through Icons and the Saints

John the Baptist Icon. written by Christine Hales

In the world of Christian spirituality, a beautiful mystery unfolds whenever art and prayer meet. Two icon related books—The Dwelling of the Light: Praying With Icons of Christ by Dr. Rowan Williams, and The Song of Saints: Celebrating the Saints with Anglican Prayer Beads by Catherine Gotschall—offer readers rich opportunities to encounter that mystery with depth and devotion. Though very different in scope, each invites us to slow down, to look more deeply, and to let the Holy Spirit reshape how we see God, the world, and ourselves.

Seeing Christ Anew: Rowan Williams on Praying With Icons

When The Dwelling of the Light was first published in 2003, Dr. Rowan Williams had just begun his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury. Already a respected theologian and scholar, Williams offered the world a slim but luminous volume on praying with icons of Christ. It remains one of his most beloved spiritual works.

Madonna and Child. Written by Christine Hales

At the heart of the book lies a profound reverence for icons—not as decorative artifacts, but as encounters with divine presence. Williams writes:

“In their presence you become aware that you are present to God and that God is working on you by his grace, as he does in the lives and words of holy people.”

Using four deeply significant icons—The Transfiguration, The Resurrection, The Hospitality of Abraham, and Christ Pantocrator—he guides the reader into a prayerful way of seeing. Icons, he suggests, are not depictions of a moment frozen in history; they reveal a life “radiating the light and force of God.”

Resurrection Icon. written by Christine Hales

In Williams’ hands, each icon becomes not only an image but a doorway: a way for Christ’s transfiguring presence to shape our own vision of the world. The book is small enough to read in an afternoon but expansive enough to ponder for years.

I have always appreciated Dr. Williams’ viewpoint on icons and sacramentals in the Anglican Church. Sometimes on my lunch break I like to pick up one of his books for some quick inspiration!

Williams wrote a companion volume a year earlier—Ponder These Things: Praying With Icons of the Virgin (Canterbury Press, 2002)—which offers a similar depth of prayer through icons of Mary.

Praying With the Cloud of Witnesses: Catherine Gotschall’s The Song of Saints

While Williams leads us to contemplate the face of Christ, Catherine Gotschall invites us to pray with the saints themselves. A lifelong Episcopalian, Gotschall has created an extraordinary resource in The Song of Saints: Celebrating the Saints with Anglican Prayer Beads.

I met Catherine at the Episcopal Convention of South West Florida several weeks ago and want to share this interesting book with you all since first class books on the lives of the saints are hard to come by!

Her book presents the lives of more than fifty saints from across the centuries—men and women whose faithful witness continues to echo through Christian history. Arranged within the six cycles of the liturgical year, the saints span the 1st to the 20th century and represent Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions.

But what makes the book truly distinctive is its prayer practice. For each saint, Gotschall offers:

A brief biography
Prayers drawn from the saint’s own writings—letters, sermons, and vitae
A way of praying these words with Anglican prayer beads

She describes a saint as:

“someone who has led a sacramental life… an outward and visible sign of deep and abiding inner spiritual grace.”

St, Francis and the Wolf of Lubbio written by Christine Hales

This is more than a book of history or devotional snippets—it is a tool for moving devotion “from head to heart.” Through the rhythm of the beads and the wisdom of the saints, readers are invited into a lived experience of prayer that feels both ancient and deeply personal.

Link to Purchase Book on Amazon

St. John Theologian Icon by Christine Hales

Art, Prayer, and the Ever-Living Presence of God

Together, these two books remind us of something essential: authentic Christian prayer is not an escape from the world but a way of seeing it more truthfully. Icons illuminate the radiant presence of Christ at the center of all things. The saints show us what life looks like when that presence is welcomed, trusted, and lived boldly across centuries and cultures.

Whether you are drawn to the serene gaze of Christ Pantocrator or to the stirring witness of those who followed him, these works offer gentle, profound companions for the spiritual journey.

They invite us—quietly but insistently—to ponder, to pray, and to be transformed.

Until next month, be blessed and be a blessing! And don’t forget, if you write an informative article about your icons or icon related information, please email me with your ideas and proposals. It would be wonderful to have articles written by more of you!

Love and prayers,

Christine Hales

Recent Posts on Saints; Stories of Saints and Icons and

All Saints Day.

My Next in- Person Icon Writing Retreats for 2026

LINKS For Christine Simoneau Hales 2025

https://newchristianicions.com my main website
Https://christinehalesicons.com Prints of my Icons
https://online.iconwritingclasses.com my online pre-recorded icon writing classes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2WoRDiPivGtz2aw61FQXA My YouTube Channel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHalesFineArt or https://www.facebook.com/NewChristianIcons/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehalesicons/?hl=en
American Association of Iconographers: FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371054416651983

American Association of Iconographers Website: https://americanassociationoficonographers.com

Contact Christine: chales@halesart.com

El Greco

And the Enduring Influence of Byzantine Icon Training

Hello Fellow Iconographers:

As you probably already know, I love making connections between Byzantine iconography and modern art. I always think that icons were the contemporary art of their time, so how can we bring a contemporary approach to our icon writing? This article about the work of ElGreco shows how one iconographer of the 16th century made that transition. The approaches each iconographer takes to contemporary iconography will be as individual as the iconographers themselves, but some things will remain. Here is an account of how this issue played out in the life and work of ElGreco.

Doménikos Theotokópoulos—better known as El Greco—has long fascinated scholars of Early Modern art. While his mature works in Toledo are celebrated for their dramatic elongations, expressive color, and visionary intensity, less often explored in depth is the formative influence of his early training in the Byzantine icon tradition. This article examines how the discipline of icon-painting, rooted in the post-Byzantine Cretan School, left an enduring imprint on El Greco’s aesthetic, technique, and theological vision. His icon training, I argue, was not a youthful chapter to be overcome, but a structural foundation that underlay his later innovations.

From Crete to Venice

Although he was born in Crete in 1541, after receiving icon painting training in his early life, Domenikos left Crete in 1567 for Venice. Some key characteristics Domenikos learned from the icon painters were:

A hieratic vocabulary of elongated, stylized figures and flattened pictorial space intended for devotion.

The use of traditional materials and techniques—tempera, wooden panels, and gilding.

An emphasis on spiritual vision over empirical realism.

But in Venice he was encountering the artistic milieu of the Italian Renaissance and Mannerism, absorbing the vibrant color, dynamic composition and spatial experimentation of artists such as Tintoretto and Titian. This Western training did not supplant his icon-foundation but merged with it. One of his trademark features—elongated, upward-reaching figures, almost defying gravity—can be traced back to the hieratic verticality of icons, in which figures are often elevated beyond the earthly realm. In his mature altarpieces in Toledo, this physical stretching expresses a spiritual tension: the human yearning toward the Divine.

Rome, Toledo, and the Transformation of a Style

From Venice, El Greco moved to Rome (1570–1576), where he sought patronage but struggled to achieve success amid the competitive papal art world. In 1576, he relocated to Spain, where his career flourished under the patronage of the Church and the Spanish nobility. His first major commission came from the dean of Toledo Cathedral: three altarpieces for the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo, works that already reveal a synthesis of iconographic form, Mannerist stylization, and Venetian color.

Even as his technique evolved, the influence of icon-painting persisted. The vertical elongation of figures—one of El Greco’s most recognizable traits—can be traced to the hieratic verticality of Byzantine icons, where figures are elevated beyond the earthly realm. In El Greco’s mature altarpieces, this elongation expresses a spiritual tension, a reaching upward toward the Divine.

Similarly, his treatment of space often resists Renaissance perspectival illusion. Instead of a fully realistic spatial construction, El Greco employs stacked planes and compressed layers to evoke a metaphysical dimension. Scholars have linked this to his Byzantine roots, where sacred space functions symbolically rather than empirically.

Theological Continuities: Painting as a Spiritual Act

Beneath the stylistic parallels lies a deeper continuity: El Greco’s theological conception of painting. In the icon tradition, the painter’s task is to serve as a mediator of divine light, not merely an imitator of nature. This conception of sacred art as a spiritual discipline—requiring prayer, fasting, and inner illumination—found new expression in El Greco’s Spanish works.

His figures seem animated not by physical energy but by spiritual light, glowing from within. In this, El Greco remained faithful to the iconographer’s conviction that beauty reveals the presence of God.

Reception and Legacy

“El Greco is one of the few old master painters who enjoys widespread popularity,” writes Keith Christiansen of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rediscovered in the nineteenth century by collectors, critics, and artists, El Greco was hailed as both the quintessential Spaniard and a proto-modern painter of the spirit.

For members of the Blue Rider school, including Franz Marc, El Greco embodied a mystical resistance to materialism—a painter who, as Christiansen writes, “felt the mystical inner construction of life.”

Conclusion: The Icon as Foundation of Innovation

El Greco’s artistic evolution cannot be fully understood without acknowledging the foundational role of his icon-training on Crete. Far from being a mere apprenticeship, this discipline remained the structural ground of his mature art—shaping his understanding of color, form, space, and the sacred.

His work ultimately represents a synthesis of:

The spiritual economy of the icon,
The painterly brilliance of Venice and Rome, and
The religious fervor of Counter-Reformation Spain.

For students of sacred art and iconographers today, El Greco offers a powerful model: discipline does not restrict creativity—it frames and empowers it. His art demonstrates that fidelity to tradition can be the very source of visionary originality.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and that it is food for thought. The battle for art is not won or lost in an academic tradition, but in the spiritual realm where God is all powerful. God wants each of us to give glory to His name in each individual way that he has created us.

Here are some interesting links that are passed on from Dorothy Alexander, a friend and iconographer in California:

1.How Icons Are Made” is the fourth and final lecture by Aidan Hart presented at St. Julian’s Church in Shrewsbury, England. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2eq-NiDVE&t=82s. He speaks on both the theology as well as the practical details of making an icon.

2.You can see the beauty of natural pigments as you watch how vivianite is made from the mineral. This also helps to understand why it is not cheap to buy. The example at the end shows the versatility of the color

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww2QRpSG4fA&t=40s&pp=2AEokAIB

3. This slow moving video is an example of Instacoll gilding, faulting (repairing or filling in any holes) and burnishing with a cloth. https://youtu.be/bK1gKiO2sSo?si=CaLsBN_NLJbjt85g

That’s all for this month!

God bless you all,

Christine

These are my links if you’d like to see more of what I do:

LINKS For Christine Simoneau Hales 2025

https://newchristianicions.com my main website
Https://christinehalesicons.com Prints of my Icons
https://online.iconwritingclasses.com my online pre-recorded icon writing classes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2WoRDiPivGtz2aw61FQXA My YouTube Channel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHalesFineArt or https://www.facebook.com/NewChristianIcons/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehalesicons/?hl=en
American Association of Iconographers: FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371054416651983
American Association of Iconographers Website: https://americanassociationoficonographers.com

Creating an Icon

Hello Dear Friends and Fellow Iconographers:

As we move into fall, it’s always a good time to reflect on the summer time that is past and imagine what we hope to accomplish this winter season. I’ve been doing a lot of Icon writing teaching this past summer, which I have loved. But it does come at the expense of having creative time to create icons, so I am very happy to have some time ahead of me to create new icons and experiment with different colors and techniques. I hope to have some work to share with you by the end of the year!

One of the main ways I have of supporting students as they move from taking classes to working on their own is through Patreon. On this platform, for a nominal monthly fee, I offer a few different levels of membership that can help new iconographers to grow, ask questions, share concerns about their icon painting techniques and receive feedback. If you are interested, you can go to Patreon and look up Christine Hales Icons, or I will put a link for you at the end of this article.

All this to say, that one of my long time students has created an original and insightful icon, “The Temptation of Christ”, which I would like to share with you this month. Sue Valentine is a minister who wanted to have the icon speak to that moment of Christ’s temptation by the devil. Along the way, through many changes and transitions, the creating of the icon has provided a space for discussing and reflecting upon this moment in Christ’s ministry, and we worked together discerning how best to portray the meaning and message in iconographic form.

Sue has generously shared about her thoughts and process which I include here, along with some sequential images of the changes the icon went through until completion.

The Temptation of Christ Icon written by the Hand of Sue Valentine

Sue Valentine's Temptation of Christ Icon

“Jesus faced three temptations before He began His public ministry. The final temptation is the subject of this icon. The devil led Jesus to a high place, showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, and offered them to Jesus now, without having to suffer and die, if only Jesus would worship him.

This is a less familiar story to some, and because I wanted people to understand what they were seeing, the haiku at the bottom is an attempt to summarize the scripture for them:

“Kingdoms, if you bow.”

“Away from me, O Satan.”

“Worship God, alone.”

Matthew 4:8-10

People struggle with the idea of whether Jesus could be tempted. Sometimes the word is translated “test”. But whether He was tempted or tested, for this to be a true “test”, it had to have been possible for Jesus to fail it. What would have happened to us had He failed the test and worshipped Satan?

Kingdoms are tempting. Power is tempting. The ground surrounding the kingdoms depicted in the lower left are painted with gold to depict a counterfeit of heaven’s “streets of gold”, and subtle gold highlights in the windows imply there is something desirable yet hidden within. I decided not to make the kingdoms look more obviously attractive by applying gold to the outsides of the buildings. Kingdoms are, after all, seductive. But thankfully, Jesus wasn’t motivated by kingdoms. He was motivated by rescuing us.

More Progress Photos

The Homily, or Application of the Story

I felt His clarity of purpose as He responded to Satan, “Worship God, alone”, as He pointed His finger at the dragon. I find it interesting that there is no agitation on Jesus’ face. His eyes are closed. He is serene. But His conviction is clear.

Like most people, I would like to receive a reward from God without suffering, or without having to walk the whole road He has for me. I felt that as I wrote this icon. I struggled mightily with color choices, especially with the mountains and the inner background, and changed them many times asking the Holy Spirit to help me.

It’s tempting to want to design our own roads. It’s tempting to want an easy life. But that is not the way of a disciple. Worship of God includes acknowledging that He determines our path, including the subjects of our icons and the process we go through as we write them.”

Sue Valentine

I’m so grateful that Sue has shared this with all of us, and I hope that this can provide a model not only for discerning how to paint a particular icon, but also for allowing God to speak to us through the process of icon writing and convey that to the viewer.

With this, I put out a request to those of you with icons and their development to share with us all in next month’s newsletter. Just email me with your thoughts and photos: chales@halesart.com

I close this month’s newsletter with a prayer and quote from Psalm 106:

“For your lovingkindness is greater than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Exalt yourself above the heavens O God, and your glory over all the earth, so that those who are dear to you may be delivered, save with your right hand and answer me.”

May God grant you all peace and the ability to be peace makers, and bless the work of your hands,

Love and prayers,

Christine Simoneau Hales

My Links:

MY PATREON: CLICK HERE

https://newchristianicions.com my main website
Https://christinehalesicons.com Prints of my Icons
https://online.iconwritingclasses.com my online pre-recorded icon writing classes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK2WoRDiPivGtz2aw61FQXA My YouTube Channel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristineHalesFineArt or https://www.facebook.com/NewChristianIcons/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinehalesicons/?hl=en
American Association of Iconographers: FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/371054416651983
American Association of Iconographers Website: https://americanassociationoficonographers.com

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