We were pleased to
welcome back Peter Murphy to Calgary to teach Byzantine iconography for the second year in
a row. In his 2014 workshop, Peter chose to focus primarily on the
techniques of gold gilding used in Byzantine iconography. Students worked on an
image of the “Kahn Madonna” based on a 13th century Byzantine style
panel now housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Students learned to prepare and apply clay
bole to their panels according to the traditional method of water gilding. Then they learned the careful process of burnishing
the gold to a mirror-like finish. After
completing painting their figure, students moved to the meticulous process of
adding the gold assist to the garments.
Peter is a master gilder whose work reflects his skilled
craftsmanship. Despite their initial
apprehensions, students responded well as Peter demystified the gilding process
and aided the students in developing confidence in this new technique.
This year, Peter decided to focus on Byzantine faces and
folds. Students were given the choice
of doing St. John the Baptist, the Pantocrator, or the Archangels Michael or
Gabriel. While students gilded the halo
using the oil gilding technique, the principal focus was on painting the
highlights on garments and developing the transition between highlights on the
faces using the traditional proplasmos technique. On the final day, you could feel the
excitement in the room as students finished the highlights on the faces and
garments and added the final gold assist to the garments. The images, which they had labored on all
week, seemed to suddenly come together and pop out from the board.
As an additional feature to this year’s workshop, Peter
spent a portion of the week teaching students how to prepare traditional
gessoed icon panels. On the first day of
the workshop, students applied a layer of fabric to their boards using a glue
size prepared with gelatin. On the
second day, students learned to prepare their gesso using gelatin-based size
and marble dust. Then they applied the
first three coats of gesso to their boards.
On the third day, students alternated between painting on their icons
with applying the next 9 coats of gesso to their new boards. Finally, Peter showed how to sand the boards to the fine
ivory-like finish that is needed for icon painting. At the end of the week, students were
delighted to have both a completed icon and a new icon board ready for their
next project.
Peter is an excellent teacher who is generous in sharing his
insights and experience. The
demonstrations of the various techniques were also interspersed with
discussions of the history and theology of iconography. Drawing on his extensive personal travels
and studies, Peter gave helpful explanations of the differences between
Byzantine and Romanesque styles of iconography.
Peter is one of those rare teachers who can easily move
between students at quite different skill levels, giving each one careful
attention, and encouraging them to have the confidence to push their skills to
the next level. With Peter’s careful
guidance, students were surprised at what they were able to achieve during the
week. Peter’s humble and kind demeanor instills confidence in students as they
attempted new techniques.
One of the downfalls of these types of occasional workshops
is that students can often be dependent on their instructor to complete their
icon and do not have the confidence to continue painting between workshops. In this case, Peter has been imparting new
skills to students each year in a manner that has encouraged them to become
regular icon painters. In order to build on the skills that Peter has already
passed on to our students, plans are already in the works for Peter to return
to Calgary in 2016 to teach a workshop on the techniques of Fra Angelico.
