Oleg Savelyev

My name is Oleg Savelyev, I'm an icon-painter from Uzhgorod, Transcarpathia, Ukraine.
I work in a traditional ancient technique - egg tempera and use only mineral, organic, non-artificial pigments in my work, such as lazurite (also known as lapis-lazuli), azurite, malachite, cinnabar (mercurial sulphide), realgar (arsenic red), auripigment (orpiment), hematite, ivory black, etc. My artworks are painted on wooden boards (usually from lime tree with the oak strips on the back), then I use linen canvas and primer, made of high-quality chalk with leather glue. The icons are covered with natural leaf-gold, to finish I use copal varnish.
Using this traditional time-honoured technique and exclusively natural precious materials lets these artworks save their colours and beauty for ages. The abundant use of gold, which signified light and is the symbol of deity, imparts the icon serene shimmering, imprints an exalted, unearthy beauty. The gleam of gold blends beautifully with the bright, pure colours which glow like precious stones.
Icon painting is connected with the spiritual life of man by many ties. In olden times the sophisticated theological ideas could be understood by only comparatively few learned individuals. Icons opened the r...