ICONS
December TBA, 2003
Academy Art Center at Linekona (Second Floor); Free AdmissionThe art of French icon artist Brigitte Baert will be the focus of this solo exhibition. Baert started painting when she was 6. At 8, her drawings enthused her teacher so much, the teacher sent her first masterpieces to the Children’s Salon in Paris. Her Byzantine schooling in the art of icon painting took five years under Father Igor Sendler, an uncontested master of Russian iconography, at the Center of Russian Studies in Paris. He work, icons and frescoes, adorns chapels throughout Europe. Baert came to Hawaii in December 2000 and May 2002 and conducted sold out workshops in this traditional Christian art form. As a reporter for an architectural and design magazine, she traveled the world over. She also spent twelve years studying Egyptology and decoding hieroglyphs. She left Paris and moved to Vendome where she presented in a XVth century chapel an exhibition of 36 canvases and 5 icons. In Haute Savoie, Brigitte started working on frescos. Icons have become her passion. Icon painting is a time-honored tradition throughout Europe combining the art of painting, the manipulation of gold leaf, and the study of Christian iconography. It is an art of extreme precision which corrects itself to the tenth part of a millimeter. The artist works with three elements: mineral water, pigments, and gold leaves.