ICONS
Fresco from Zarzma Monastery; Photo courtesy The Catalogue of Good Deeds
Join Paul Colbert and Becky Goodwin partners in life, love, and creativity, on a divine journey through the realm of modern religious iconography as they blend tradition with innovation, crafting timeless representations of faith that resonate in today's world.
As a married couple deeply rooted in faith and united by passion for art, they find inspiration in the sacred stories and symbols that have endured through centuries. Through their brushstrokes, breathe new life into age-old narratives, infusing them with contemporary interpretations and universal significance.
Icons are painted prayers
I had the exciting opportunity to go to Paul and Becky’s home to photograph their icons and see the sacred space where they create a collection of icons in a corner of their bedroom with a chair facing the collection. It was like an altar although I never heard that word used. I can imagine sitting in that chair in the quiet of an early morning and meditating on the icons. The Icons represent a heavenly presence and as you pray interact with that presence. When you pray with an icon, it is like an imaginal prayer. There is something beautifully mysterious about this.
What I really loved is that there were icons in the kitchen and throughout the house. Icons are part of the family and so they are part of daily life. They are invited in and they live with the family.
How to Pray with Icons by the School Sisters of Notre Dame
Praying with icons is an ancient practice that involves using natural and supernatural eyes, seeing what the image communicates in both mind and soul.
- Be unassuming: Approach an icon with reverence. Simply seek to observe and understand the scene and setting. Icons represent a heavenly presence and as you pray interact with that presence.
- Enter the Scene: Become aware of the truths the icon opens to the mortal mind.
- Meditate: Where is your eye drawn? Consider how this component touches your life. Spend time allowing your heart to interact with the icon subject.
- Listen: Remain quiet in prayer, disposed to following prompts on your mind or heart. Don’t strive to lead prayer.
- Be grateful: Offer your needs and aspirations, trusting that they are received and understood. Spend time in the presence of God giving thanks for the experience.
“One’s soul and inner life inadvertently reverberate in his or her painting. An icon is some kind of a spiritual barometer that shows the inner state of the icon painter.”
Interview With Paul Colbert and Becky Goodwin
PAUL: Icon painting is a very specific type of painting. Would you explain what is unique about it.
An icon is a window into another realm. Religious icons open a window into the spiritual realm for those who choose to look. Computer icons open windows into other applications for those who choose to use them.
The form of painting continues tradition from the early church days. The icon (image) is a generic depiction of Christ, Mary, the Saints, or events in the life of Christ or the church. The depiction is generally done to engage the viewer (pray-er) as part of the icon. The facial characteristics, garments, and scenery are intended to represent, rather than being the realistic depictions we see in Western art since the 1100s or so. Certainly the more modern art can draw people in and be prayerful, but in being more generic, the "art" of the older pieces is less distracting - it draws attention to the beyond, more than the work itself.
BECKY: You learned from Paul. Were you an artist before he taught you the icon painting technique?
I have been an artist all my life, but I never had a strong or particular medium or topic. I took art classes in high school, and developed my skill through two careers, teaching and church leadership, by applying visual creativity to my classrooms and to church aesthetics.
When I was in seminary I had a worship arts course that took us to tour churches and learn about the art. When I was on a tour of a Greek Orthodox Church, which was full of icons, the leader suggested that anyone who ever wants to learn to pray and paint icons can do it! I put that on the “back burner” of my creative mind and waited for an opportunity. I bought a large beautiful icon, Mother of Compassion, from Printery House, and framed it for my office at the church in Rancho Cordova where I was pastor. I had been widowed and found the icon truly a gift of compassion to myself!
When I was appointed to the United Methodist Church in Madera, California, Mother of Compassion came with me. In that town, I met Paul, the local Episcopal priest, and found out that he had been painting icons for several years. I asked him how he learned, and he told me about Peter Pearson, who is an accomplished icon painter and who loves to teach also. While waiting for a chance to attend an icon retreat, Paul coached me personally through my first effort. We sat together and worked on identical icons, side by side, at my dining room table. In the process, we also fell in love and began to plan our future!
PAUL: How did you get into painting religious icons? What was the lure?
I was first attracted to icons as a prayer form. They spoke to me more than the more modern art and then statues or tapestries. I was able to engage with them in a deeper way than with other art forms.
BECKY: Would you call this painting activity a religious practice?
Painting an icon is a spiritual practice. The process is contemplative, which means I am pondering all that is real in my life and in the world, with love, and thus my hours of painting are prayerful.
The icons live with us at home, and are visible everyday in the kitchen, on bookshelves, and in a little chapel space we share. We store icons not in usage, and change icons by seasons, saint days, and personal celebrations. I share icons outside the home at prayer groups, retreats, and other activities. I have given icons as gifts to loved ones, to charity auctions, and I have had prints made for gifts and for Christmas cards.
I am comfortable with both the verbs “writing” and “painting” icons. Some people think only “writing” is the appropriate term, but not all of us who paint icons always refer to it as “writing.” The two terms are interchangeable. That said, since I an also a writer of poetry and memoir, between my writing with paint and my writing with words, I can surely call myself Writer!
PAUL: How is God present for you in these paintings or the act of painting?
As windows into the divine realm, icons are a depiction that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Whether in a prayer corner with one image, or a small chapel surrounded by images, or in a fully laid out Orthodox Church, these witnesses surround us, engaging us in prayer and conversation.
Painting icons is also prayerful. The traditional style of painting, whether using egg tempura or acrylic paint as a medium, is one of many thin dry paint layers. The repetition of layering is a prayerful endeavor. Even in learning appropriate painting techniques, the mind can engage with prayer while the body is working. This is a very contemplative act for me.
“An icon is where God meets us, humans. There is a human being and there is God; an icon painter witnesses this encounter and paints an icon.”
Icons by Paul Colbert and Becky Goodwin
“The invisible things of God have been made visible.”
“Life is sacred. Life is art. Life is sacred art.”
“The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God. . . . I do not worship matter. I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring the matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God. Because of this, I salute all remaining matter with reverence because God has filled it with reverence, because God has filled it with his grace and power. Through it, my salvation has come to me.”
