Hot wax. Pigmented color gone mad with possibility. So funny how we return to things with childhood fascination. I have always loved wax and candles. There is something so right, so elemental about wax--the lure of the honeycomb, the secret miniature womb for God's sweetness. When I lived in France I ate the stuff, of course ripe with honey, chewy and raw. And therein lay the beauty of plants and animals working in unison to offer a perfect gift. Bees--such perfect, amazing insects. Then there is beeswax in my studio, the wrapping me in this strange sense of hope for some reason. Promise. Transfiguration. Purpose. I have found wax to be a beautiful way to permeate the space around a figurative icon. Ideally, the hand is not to be seen in brushstroke, and the light from the levkas (the gesso layer--"the uncreated light")should allow light to bounce back through. And with this method I am using, it does. Such a delicate veil of color to set the icon within, a gentle hand for this unconventional space. When it is complete, I can polish it to a high shine like glass. Again reflecting light better than gold.
I get lost in the process.
Saturday night I reveled in my quiet house and alchemy of wax. Apply, fuse, wait, scrape, and again--apply, fuse, wait, scrape, until it starts speaking of where it wants to go. And sometimes I am hasty, or miss the turnoff of a layer, and have to find it again. Scrape.
And I won't muse on the nature of life in this echo, but indeed it sits with you in this meditation of color in the balance.
So interesting how process can bring joy in the pursuit of beauty.
I worked so hard on the wax background for St. Gregory Palamas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Palamas)--and I am content with the subtle grey-blue that has graced the surface after many repetitions of layers. Shall the layers build like prayer of the heart? Hopefully Gregory himself would approve.
I am fascinated by the early painters who discovered these catalysts to impregnate the pigment--yolk, wax, oil. And the cave paintings at Lascaux? One can wonder.
Perhaps when I master the process of iconography I will also explore the encaustic on the figures themselves like the famous Christ icon of Mt. Sinai and the Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits. So much to learn...
I will be creating a blog with pictures of my icons. It takes far too long to load on my website, and I can't even upload them freely from home. I would like to share a little process with a visual eye.
Our Lady of Don (a private commission)came out nicely, and now I have to face the reality of my negligence as I did not even photograph it. Nor the completed Resurrection, Elijah in the Wilderness, or St. Anthony. Now I have to find a way to rectify this gap. So interesting how these icons become like friends, and I miss their presence when they leave the studio and go into the world--but it is there where they do their work and speak Truth.
Today I opened (blocked in the initial paint)on St. Gregory--I will be guilding with the italian gold tonight, but I have found I prefer the Russian even though it is thinner.
Learning.
Besides writing and upholding prayer of the heart, St. Gregory Palamas was a celebrated cantor. I leave with his song:
Kontakion (Tone 4)
Now is the time for action!
Judgment Judgment is at the doors!
So let us rise and fast,
offering alms with tears of compunction and crying:
"Our sins are more in number than the sands of the sea;
but forgive us, O Master of All,
so that we may receive the incorruptible crowns."
To what song of hibernation do the bees keep now? Still, dark and silent, waiting for spring--deep inside the catacombs of wax as the snows blow...
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