Iconography was offered as an elective at the Athens School of Fine Art. While still studying, I ended up working for the teacher’s commercial studio as part of an artisans guild. This led to me painting on the walls of churches in Greece, Cyprus and South Korea, at times having to work for hours on 25 metre plus high scaffolding! i did this for a short time but gained experience in this style of painting and admired it greatly.

The Lovers are from my early series of Modern Icons. I started painting them in 2001 soon after returning to Australia.  Non religious, everyday themes and characters were painted in the Byzantine iconography style. I only created about a dozen before changing direction and freeing up my brushstrokes.

Themes such as students with a moped, a market gardener in his stall, an islander couple on their property, a tavern owner standing in the entrance of his restaurant. All painted like saints with the same details and methods used in Greek orthodox religious icons.

The Lovers further explored this approach and was the last one I painted. You can see a couple more examples of this style in my Gallery