About the Artist
Luiza Budea is a Romanian-born artist,who lives and works in New York City.
The Monastery of Cartisoara, Romania
View of the porch from The Monastery of
St. Panteleimon, Greece
View of The Monastery of Akritochori, Greece
Retracing a lost tradition
Because of a century when icon-painting was almost entirely discontinued, the knowledge of how to do it no longer survives to this day. Modern schools have attempted to collect what was left and revive the craft, but each has filled in what was missing not only with contemporary techniques and materials but also contemporary thinking. It was necessary then to piece together fragments of this knowledge from whatever sources seemed to be most promising.
Luiza has traveled widely to study and research various methods and schools of icon-painting. She became well-versed in both the Greek and Russian schools before merging their best elements into her personal technique.
Her personal strength is her excelling color sensibility. She is knowledgeable of pigments that have been used historically; produced acording to their original recipes. She avoids the use of modern pigments wherever possible because they tend to overpower and disrupt the color harmony of the image.
Like many Romanian artists she acquired and pursued both a classical fine arts education and a knowledge of painting Icons. She graduated from The Cooper Union School of Art and studied at the Prosopon School of Iconography in New York City.
Thanks to the gracious help of Fr. Nicolae Tanase from Valea Plopului, to whom she is eternally grateful, she was able to travel to Greece, where she studied iconography at the Monastery St. Panteleimon near Eleftheroupoli, and at the monastery of Akritochori, located near Thessaloniki. Both have renowned icon-painting studios and traditions stemming from Mt. Athos.
She also enjoyed an exchange of experience and the gracious hospitality of the nuns of the Holy Monastery of Cartisoara, nestled at the foot of the Fagaras mountains in Romania.
