One reason why I have not posted for a little while is that I have been away on a course. The event took place in Canterbury, and the subject was Ikon painting. I did something similar eight years ago, but when I came to consider using this material again I realised that I really needed some refreshment.
These courses are run by Peter Murphy, who I understand to be one of the country’s leading exponents of this art-form. They are residential courses, and pretty intense. All the required materials are supplied, including proper craft-made boards. These must be quite expensive, as I gather they are actually made in Serbia, to his order. I think that there were twelve of us on the course, with varying degrees of skill and experience. A couple of the students were obviously old hands, and were working with a level of skill which was evidently the fruit of long acquaintance with the medium.
I am rather pleased with the result of my efforts, although I think that the application of some of the gold leaf was a little crude in places. In fact, looking back on the work I produced in my first course, eight years ago, in some respects I think that the finish was a little better on that occasion. Even so, I am glad to have had the refreshment of the course.
To my delight, I discovered that I still have the tools and materials I collected after that earlier occasion. So, since I have returned home I have embarked on another project or my own. (Perhaps more of that anon.) I find that it is agonising trying to overcome my lack of confidence in working on my own, and I keep finding tasks which “need” doing which enable me to defer making decisions or commitments to action. Nevertheless, I am making progress.
I’ll say more about my choice of subject-matter in a subsequent post.