Firstly, the photograph of this painting on here is horrible! It was taken on my ipod in a room with bad lighting. There is significantly more detail, especially on the baby’s face and the robes.

St Stylianos, Egg Tempera on wood board.

This painting, though not very good, was an experiment for me. I wanted to paint an icon, and to make it ‘authentic’ I had to use traditional materials and techniques from the 12th century. This is vaguely in the byzantine style….

I might post a journal about that later, as the process behind preparing the board with size and gesso, and also, making the paints is somewhat interesting. Now it just needs to be blessed and stay in a church for forty days to be a ‘proper’ icon rather than just a picture.

St Stylianos is venerated in both the orthodox and catholic churches, but I have only heard of him through the orthodox church. He is the patron saint of children, hence the baby in the image.

This is to be a gift for Yiayia Stella, as it is her name saint.