Third Float & repainting Lines

The third float is the brightest and purest of colors. It's light and I put two layers of it on the icon. This is the last section of the highlighting/float process, and enunciates the colors vibrantly.

Following the float, I repainted the lines of the icon. Where before some were black (a mistake the first go-round), I adjusted them to their rightful colors.

This was a sit back and gaze moment for me. Without a doubt, iconography is a spiritual discipline. When I started, it was hard to pray and paint and write. I used resources to help aid where my head and heart and hands should react. But after a more steady practice, more of me dragging myself out of bed at 5 in the morning, much more of it came naturally. And I yearned for that time, those prayers, and what God was speaking to me here.

And just as these colors shone brilliantly and vibrantly on this wood, I felt like I was shinning more vibrantly, as well.

Second Float: Revolution and revelation

The Second Float is harder to see. It's meant to soften the highlights a little. I specifically concentrated on the three figures depicted, but the grass was also given a second Float.

Another thing struck me in this stage. The history of this iconic story of Abraham and the three visitors has been shaped and changed throughout history. Sometimes you'll see this depicted with a prominent house and Sarah in the doorway with Abraham greeting the visitors, and sometimes you see them eating together, somewhat like this one is configured. But one of the things that makes this icon by Rublev completely different is his decision to remove Abraham and Sarah as people. The indications of the house, the Tree (of Mamre) and the Mountain (Mt. Sinai) are what helps the reader link it to the icon's tradition. 
Rublev, however was a revolutionary, in his time. The creation of this image was very reflective of the he and his contemporary, Sergii of Radonezh's vision for how they imagined the trinity to be.

"Rublev distinguished, for the first time, all three Persons, shifting the focus to the Spirit and illustrating the Johannine Pentecost in its trinitarian, christological, soteri-ological, sacramental, and spiritual dimensions."*

This reminds me of how intently these icons portray and even teach theology. By including some and not other characters, but understanding the dimensions of how each persons is facing, their hand gestures, and hierarchical ordering in the portrait-- we are helped to shape our meditations and understandings of this scene.

We see this in our everyday lives, don't we? When we read a passage of the living, breathing word of God, we can't read it the same way twice. As God moves and shapes us, we continue to learn more about who God is, how he acts, and the plethora of layers and meanings within scripture-- unlocked!
And as we see God through the glasses of our understanding, community, and relationship, we uncover new truths about God, articulated in His word, and specifically that passage you are reading again.**





* J.S. Custer review of Gabriel Bunge's The Rublev Trinity. Translated from the German by Andrew Louth. Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary, 2007. Pp. 120.

**This liturgy of formation is very delicate. If you are not surrounding yourself with the body of Christ and if you are not in relationship with God, then these revelations become impositions of your thoughts onto the text, instead of the God speaking to you through the text.

Finished First Float

In the whole Icon writing process, we have lots of layers including Lines, Highlights, Floats (and later, coats!), so in my mind's eye, I was thinking that highlights would articulate color, and floats would mute it. In actuality, we have the opposite! Highlights provide the depth of shapes and floats warm everything back up again with vibrant color. Here is the finished first float.

Icons showcase light inherently. Floats help illuminate and deepen the original colors of the icon. Both the figures and scene are used to articulate the "created" and inner light. There are no deep shadows in iconography. There is a sense that you are standing in the midst, invited to be a part of the conversation. There is both illumination on and from.

I found a neat excerpt from Henri Nouwen in some recent reading. Thought I'd share-
"Icons are not easy to 'see.' They do not immediately speak to our senses. They do not excite, fascinate, stir our emotions, or stimulate our imagination. At first, they even seem somewhat rigid, lifeless, schematic, and dull. They do not reveal themselves to us at first sight. It is only gradually, after  patient, prayerful presence that they start speaking to us. And as they speak, they speak more to our inner than to our outer senses. They speak to the heart that searches for God."


Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons
Henri Nouwen (Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria, 1987), 14.