Core, Clarity and Confidence
Hello icon friends and a very happy New Year to you all!
It seems a long time since I posted my ‘Holy Noses’ but Christmas was particularly joyful this year with much to celebrate and be thankful for. I like to start the New Year with a big early spring clean whilst thinking about what I would like to make room for in the coming year before settling back into painting.
When Aidan reviewed my sketches of the Holy Noses, one thing was quite apparent – my brush strokes lacked confidence. Looking back at them now, they are quite spikey, and they go off in different directions. Not to worry, I heard someone on the radio say “I learned so much from my mistakes in life, I wish I had made more!”
After some reflection, I will keep one word to the forefront this year: ‘CORE’. I hope by building upon my spiritual practice which I believe lies at the core of any external improvement, it may in turn lead to clarity, then eventually to confidence.
So after some time spent going within, I picked up the brushes and began with a monochrome study of the Blessed Virgin. I have photographed the stages of work and this time applied lots of fine layers with much softer edges. I haven’t quite finished her face, but I want to work on the next image and get into more of a flow and then come back to add more shading around the features. Please click on the link below to see the stages of work.
I hope to post the summary of Icon Diploma days 4, 5 and 6 in the next few days. Thanks for reading!
Icon Diploma Student 
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