FACULTY
Hexaemeron draws together an eminently qualified team of instructors for the ancient art of icon making in multimedia. The depth of Ksenia Pokrovsky's knowledge and artistry as well as her historic role in the recovery of traditional Byzantine iconography is supplemented by Marek Czarnecki's uncommon gift of articulation and Anna Gouriev's mastery of exquisite detail. Olga Fishchuk and Jonathan Pageau add a new dimension to our offerings with instruction in embroidered icons and wood and stone carved icons. These ancient arts of embroidery and carving are the perfect complement to Hexaemeron’s mission to offer the highest level of training in iconography available in this hemisphere. Hexaemeron hopes to add mosaic iconography in 2013.
KSENIA POKROVSKY
was the inspiration for the establishement of our itinerant art school, and she was the principle teacher during the first decade of Hexaemeron until her death on July 7, 2013. Ksenia gave up her career as a biophysicist in the late 1960s to dedicate herself to the ancient art of icon painting. These were not welcoming times for such a decision. Stalin had realized, two decades earlier, the political advantage of halting the destruction of Russia's religious art treasures produced by a 1000 years of Orthodox Christianity. But the official ban on "making new icons" remained aggressively in force. Icon painting workshops in monasteries and artisan centers were shut down. The practical knowledge and skill of icon painters, transferred orally from one generation to next, had all but disappeared.
MAREK CZARNECKI
is a long time-student of Ksenia Pokrovsky and is a major component of the teaching team for the Six Days of Creation courses. A gifted writer and teacher of icon painting, Czarnecki authored the instruction manual for the Six Days of Creation workshops: The Technique and Teaching of Ksenia Pokrovskya (copyright held by Izograph Studio, © 2003). As an iconographer and artist, he teaches and writes icons out of his liturgical arts studio Seraphic Restorations in Meriden, Connecticut. Czarnecki earned a bachelor's of Fine Arts degree in 1987 from the prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York City and has since exhibited his works in many American and European cities.
ANNA GOURIEV
is a gifted iconographer who has had the rare advantage of growing up in the household of one of the world's most prominent icon painters, Ksenia (or Xenia) Pokrovsky, her mother. Exposed to icon painting from earliest childhood days in Moscow, Anna was surrounded by the steady coming and going of artists, theologians and intellectuals. It was this close network of family and friends which was instrumental in recovering the ancient tradition of icon painting during a time when few understood it or dared practice it except in secret.
OLGA FISHCHUK
was born in the town of Zhytomir (Ukraine) and is a former journalist. She is a graduate of the Pictorial Embroidery Department of the Icon Painting School under the Moscow Orthodox Theological Academy (Sergiev Posad, Moscow Region, Russia). During her four years of study there, she participated extensively in research in museums throughout Russia, learning to create original new works in the ancient style by using the ancient technology. She also studied icon painting, iconology and history of church art as well.
JONATHAN PAGEAU
graduated with honors from the Painting and Drawing program at Concordia University in Montreal during the late 1990s. Quickly disillusioned with contemporary art, he discovered icons and traditional Christian images along his own spiritual journey toward Orthodoxy. His love of art was rekindled and through study of traditional forms, Jonathan developed a passion for carving.