Bridget Hayes

Hello, I'm Julia. I'm a South African born byzantine iconographer with 16 years experience. I live and studied iconography in Greece with teachers including master iconographer George Kordis. I have also studied Theology and done post-graduate studies in Liturgics at the University of Athens.

So what are these iconography tutorials about? This is not a standard weekend iconography workshop where you simply learn to  trace an icon and "paint-by-numbers". It was never the tradition of the Church to make "photocopies" of old icons, but sadly this modern "tradition" is destroying the creative tradition of the Church. Every period of iconography from the Comnene to the Paleologian periods to the Cretan School has it's own style within the Byzantine system of painting and the iconographic tradition of the Church. In these tutorials you will be  introduced to the Byzantine system of painting and given tools that will allow you create within the tradition of the Church.

It cannot be emphasized enough how important it is for iconographers to learn to draw before starting to paint. That is why with these tutorials we will start by building the foundation by learning how to draw before we progress to painting icons.

The tutorials have subtitles for the deaf.