Beginning my journey several years ago into the art of Illumination was an exciting but overwhelming process, where does one even begin with learning an ancient art form? Previously, I was a Christian Counselor but after many years of service in ministry, I was ready for a change (and less stress). I prayerfully considered my future and remembered my deep love of art, especially my lifelong fascination with gilding, ornate architecture, and heraldry. With our children now into their teens, I had more time to begin to devote to studying. I heavily considered continuing on with getting a master’s in psychology but decided to spread my wings and begin a new career.
Remembering the gilded church of my childhood I was drawn to learning more about the creation of the iconography, the impossibly ornate architecture and carvings, and gilded colorful Bibles, thus giving me direction for study.
It became quite apparent the amount of knowledge needed to learn this ancient technique was vast and soon I began scouring archives of libraries from around the world. Illumination and gilding are centuries old with so many applications. The internet has given me so much information, for which I am grateful indeed. What a time to be alive with so much technology and access to techniques and scanned exemplar manuals that were once only reserved for royals to see created by monks or devoted apprentices to learn from master artisans.
So many valuable resources began to surface, including the extensive resources of the British Library, the Bodleian Library of Oxford, World Digital Library, and the absolute treasure trove of Archive.org. With the invaluable help of some new friends who were members of the Trimaris Society of Creative Anachronism, my gilded path began.
Over the next several years, I commonly could be found pouring over ancient texts, medieval manuscripts, and illumination until the wee hours of the morning, deeply eager to learn more of this centuries-old art, even Baroque architectural ornaments and designs and acanthus drawings have aided my understanding. One of my favorite reads so far has been a Guide for drawing the acanthus from the 1800s. I'm fascinated with Celtic illumination and knots such as in the Book of Kells and also Heraldry. Even as I write this I have a bit of "light reading" of an 826-page encyclopedia of armorial art I am eager to finish.
Yes, I know I am letting my profound geekiness show... but all in the name of excellence, learning, and creating awareness to be able to teach others of the vast history and rich application of this art!