Just This Side of Paradise Byzantine Iconography Blog

Really. I mean paradise. As in all day every day doing whatever I want to do when I want to do it. Which these days is studying and practicing icon painting. There is so much to learn! So little time left. Each minute so dear. Each morning I spend two or three hours studying the masters. Old masters, contemporary masters. Pretty much anyone who knows more than I do is a master to me. I learn from everyone. But study the real masters long enough, all the while practicing, and soon your eyes begin to see the minutest fragments of details that make all the difference. Study without application and the material never really becomes yours. Application without study and you never achieve the refinement that is possible from the gifted across time. And so I spend my days in heaven on earth, or earth looking into heaven -- whichever you choose -- painting and studying, studying and painting. The Internet is a marvelous library of images and lessons and musings and demonstrations and the icon painting community is largely one of open hearts and open hands that are ready to help you if you ask. God's angels on earth. Perhaps before I die I'll become one of these. I hope I make it.