Posted on 10/15/2013 7:36:02 PM PDT by marshmallow
There have been a number of articles published recently, following a show in Moscow, of carved icons of a Russian couple Rashid and Inessa Azbuhanov (their website is here and h/t Deacon Paul Iacono of the Fra Angelico Institute for bring these to my attention). These are exquisite works and are of interest to me particularly because I have to admit I have never seen anything quite like them. I am told that they are re-establishing the tradition of carved icons. These portray form through a combination of color and relief and in this sense are a halfway house between pure relief carving, which uses shadow to describe form; and the painted icon that we are used to.
This presentation of course would be easily used for Western styles and I can see it very quickly adapted gothic style imagery and for the Western variants of the iconographic tradition, such as the Celtic. I would love to see some Catholic artists somewhere taking up the idea.
(Excerpt) Read more at newliturgicalmovement.org ...
Gives new opportunities for iconoclasts.
Even a blind person can appreciate a carved Icon.
Beautiful art.
They are beautiful.
I carve in the round and have never tried relief carving of chip carving.
I imagine it is easier, except geometry on chip carving.
Many relief carvings use paint and gold leaf to make them pop into the 2nd dimension.
I am pretty good at the paint as I painted before teaching myself carving.
I still have not tried gold leaf.
Very true.
Need some time.
I will try gold leaf on it as well, before my hands get to shaky. LOL
Rashid? That’s not your typical Christian name.
It is Egyptian.
“Iron. It’s what’s for dinner.”
— old Russian saying
I now the man who created that logo. Bob (or Robert) Brooks. He died some years back ... but did leave a widow, though I know not how to contact her...and my other contact to the guy, was that man’s son — who had been a good friend of mine. but the son died too.
Come to think of it, you may have posted the image before, and I mentioned it.
Well, it’s been a while.
That was a campaign slogan in the war of 1812.
I want to carve it for a cottage on the ocean in Maine, whose owner has been kind.
I have had this project in the back of my mind for years.
Not sure if we ever discussed it.
I first saw the project done by carver Rick Butz.
I am sure he copied a piece from the 1800’s
Wow. I want one.
Rashid and Inessa Azbuhanov
No. Rashid is an Arabic name and is also one of the 99 names of God according to Muslims. Thus, it predates Muslim entrance into and conquest of Egypt. It is not Egyptian. It is simply Arabic. Why does a Russian - Azbuhanov is clearly Slavic and the couple is said to be RUSSIAN - have a name like Rashid? Here’s his photo: http://pageaucarvings.com/2/post/2011/10/russias-elite-icon-carvers.html
Like I said, Rashid is not your typical Christian name.
I stand corrected.
Originally, there was a large redwood carving. It was huge.
It got stolen. I even found out who did it (years after it happened).
A much similar image is on the roof, but badly fading.
Just inside the door to the restaurant (referred to as GAFCO by the locals) is a relief carving of the basic image with the saying.
We can thank guys like Richard Henry Dana Jr. for the "sailors rights" portions of the [Title 46] shipping code. Around the 100's, for the most part, for the historical laws which he most influenced.
Dana never made it ashore at Morro Bay or Avila area, but his brother (or cousin?) married into a Spanish land grant family in the nearby area, leaving behind the what is the now historic "Dana Adobe" in Nipomo, CA.
Richard also wrote Two Years Before the Mast, detailing his experiences as a sailor in the hide-packing trade, arriving at California in 1836-1837. It's an interesting read. "Richard Henry Dana Jr., sometime after his return to the East Coast went on to become a lawyer, thus the tie-in with the shipping code which he influenced -- and if my memory was keener --- I could point to which articles of code he is credited with writing, as for treatment of sailors. He may have helped shape later laws, too, but that's even murkier to me, and no directly mentioned in the wiki link, either
Great history.
I think I need to read this one..
http://www.amazon.com/The-Shipcarvers-Handbook-Traditional-Carvings/dp/0937822140/ref=pd_sim_b_3
I’m just saying the name is Muslim, not the art.
I think I asked him once, or asked another...and they may have said, something along those lines, now that I'm thinking about it.
The man was a pretty good carver, back when he was just a young man.
The same guy who painted the image in the first pic which you posted -- carved the mold for those late 1960's early 70's plastic [and fake] half-kegs (beer, I think some of the first were made for Old Milwaukee?) which were sold to home consumer.
You might remember those things? It was more like a fourth of an old keg would appear to be jutting from a wall, but all it was was plastic mockup of a wooden keg with exaggerated grain and too large of boards. I think the whole idea came about from a marketer wanting to sell taps and home draft beer supplies, and needed something to cover up the holes needed put in walls to snake the tubing through. It was Bob Brooks first paying job, creating "art" as it were. The man went on to support himself with art, pretty much for the rest of his life.
I can't find a picture online, but I recall when there was one of those things in a house a couple of doors down from where I'm now sitting.
Small world
The art is orthodox, which has a confluence with the muslims in the balkans and the baltic.
At anyrate, I just stopped by for the art.
As why do we carve stuff rather than paint it?
Hand oils preserve the wood.
They stain paint, but its OK on painted carvings.
Im fact I try to age them so the paint is faded and yellowed but preserved in oil.
Carvings are tactile.
carving is easier...if you want to carve an elephant...get block of stone and just knock off any chunk that doesn’t look like an elephant....easy!
The theme sings to my heart.
That photo is like porn to me. I LOVE woodcarving. I am very, very bad at it, yet I still keep buying old tools online and plod on trying to make something I like. Lately I suspect I merely have a fetish for antique tools. Got a wonderful collection of them now. I keep them where I can see them, yet the things I’ve made with them are always in a box somewhere.
Baltic? There were no Muslims on the Baltic.
Are your tools razor sharp?
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