In her studio in Wamboin, New South Wales, surrounded by brushes, tiny pots of colour, and images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, Sue Orchison gently dabs gold paint onto her icon. Source: Catholic Voice.
“We contemplate the icon as a door to heaven, and the gold takes you to a place in the presence of Christ,” she says. “The gold represents eternity and heaven. It represents God, so it draws you into a beautiful place.”
Ms Orchison, who has been studying iconography for almost 20 years, has icons on display throughout the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn.
“Iconography is how we make the unseen God seen in our lives,” she said.
“We can do that because when Veronica passed by Christ on the way to the cross, she gave him a veil. He wiped his face with the veil, and that icon is called Not Made With Human Hands. It’s Christ. He made it himself, and this is why we can paint icons.”
As a little girl, Ms Orchison was drawn to creating pictures of Jesus.
“I would paint the traditional Renaissance images of Jesus, which were lovely, but I thought, I don’t need to do those beautiful faces of Jesus because Michelangelo’s already done them,” she said.
“And then when I grew up a bit, I started painting landscapes and portraits, but it never satisfied me because I thought well, other people do this a lot better than I do. Then I found iconography and the images of Jesus that moved my heart.”
One hundred and ten icons later, Ms Orchison still holds the same joy for her work.
“For me, personally, to be able to paint these icons is about expressing who I am and what I love deeply, which is Christ and his mother,” she said. “It’s very precious to me that I can paint that.”
FULL STORY
The sacred art of iconography: A window to heaven in Wamboin (By Veronika Cox, Catholic Voice)
