St. Thomas Aquinas Crucifix Update

July 2017

Hello St. Thomas Aquinas Community.

I returned from my teaching two weeks ago and have relished painting.

Since I paint in the manner of colorism, the first layer applied is a transparent yellow ochre that unifies ev- erything. Colorist icon painters work diligently to have all the colors harmonious in hue and value, so that they relate to one another as a cohesive whole..

Then flesh and hair of the figures are painted in a color called sankir, by the Russian schools of iconography.

Since Christ’s loin cloth will be an off- white color, it too is painted with the skin color.

At the base of the cross and out of the picture frame, I havepainted the skull the same col- or as the skin/hair.. Since the layers are very transparent, it Transparency is important to allow the light of the requires many applications to build up the white gesso to shine through. It is also of spiritual base color to a medium value. Some layers importance--to allow the light of Christ to shine may be transparent red or green. through. Note that a Z comes before Yellow ochre. This refers to the sup- plier of pigment I am using, which is Zec- chi, a finely ground pigment from Italy. Fawn Ochre is a pig- ment from Kremer, a German color man- ufacturer. I use dry pigments mixed with I keep a record of my colors in my journal, seen above. This will be help- a binder. ful when I start painting on the second side of the Crucifix. Most of my summer will be spent painting the Cruci- fix. Please keep me in your prayers, as I do your entire community.

May Christ’s peace be with you.

Kathy Sievers