Icon Painter, Fernando Arango-Fernandez at FL Shrine

THE ST. AUGUSTINE RECORD
By Staff

Fernando Arango-Fernandez painting shrine icon

FLORIDA - The power of Byzantium is what comes to mind when one views the icons with their gold leaf, bright-colored pigments, and burnished, smooth wood. Nowhere is this more evident than at St. Photios National Shrine, 41 St. George St. Housed there is a chapel adorned with hand-painted iconography that takes the viewer back to the Byzantine culture. From Wednesday through Sept. 25, the shrine will host an exhibition of Byzantine-style icons by local iconographer Fernando Arango-Fernandez, whose works are found in St. Augustine's Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, the chapel of the Tolomato cemetery, and in private collections. The creation of icons is the culminating point in Arango-Fernandez's artistic journey, joining as they do the spiritual and the aesthetic. For Fernando, the icons are an all-absorbing experience. "The more I learn about iconography, the more I realize how little I know," the artist said. "It is a profound and mysterious art, and a portal into the Divine, a pilgrimage toward the eternal." [link]