hand-painted icons and altarpieces
Helen McIldowie-Jenkins
Christ of the Isles
'It is he who penetrates the heights... it is He who penetrates the depths, He who stretches over the long distance between east and west, He who joins together the immense space between north and south - He it is who calls all men everywhere to the knowledge of the Father'
Irenaeus, Demonstration 34
Icon of the Risen Saviour; showing the patronal saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Commissioned for the sanctuary of St John the Wonderworker Orthodox Church, Felixstowe, Suffolk, England. 2004.
St Edmund - detail from Christ of the Isles
'Living or dead, nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ.'
St Edmund is shown in the 'south-east' of the icon because he was King of East Anglia from 856 until 869 when he was martyred by the invading Danes for refusing to renounce his faith. Miracles occurred shortly after his martyrdom and continued when his shrine was founded in the Abbey at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. St Edmund was patron saint of England until the 14th c., when he was succeeded by St George ...
Feast day 20th November
(For other icons of St Edmund King and Martyr, see 'Saints and Angels' section of Gallery)
St Andrew - detail from Christ of the Isles
St Andrew is shown in the 'north-east' of the icon as he is the Apostle for Scotland. He was the first to recognize Christ - 'Behold the lamb of God' and the 'First Called'. St Andrew was crucified on a saltire cross in AD62 at Patras in Greece and veneration spread across Europe. In the 4th c. some of his relics were taken to Fife in Scotland by St Regulus. St Andrew is also patron saint of Greece and Russia.
Feast day 30th November
St David - detail from Christ of the Isles
St David is shown in the 'south-west' of the icon as he is patron saint of Wales. He was a monk and a priest before becoming an archbishop in the 6th c. and spreading Christianity throughout Wales and beyond. He practised and encouraged asceticism and founded churches and monasteries, including Glastonbury Abbey. The cathedral dedicated to him at St David's houses his relics.
Feast day 1st March
St Patrick - detail from Christ of the Isles
St Patrick is shown in the 'north-west' of the icon as he is the Apostle of Ireland and was Bishop at Armagh from AD435. St. Patrick was enslaved as a shepherd boy but became a 'shepherd of souls' ¤. He introduced Christianity to Ireland and worked as a missionary and teacher, famously explaining the Mystery of the Holy Trinity by means of a three-leafed clover. St Patrick is also believed to have expelled snakes from Ireland.
Feast day 17th March
Christ the King and High Priest
Christ is represented as the Great High Priest of His Church on earth and in heaven, and wears the robes of a Byzantine bishop.
Private commission, 2006, after the original 15th c. Cretan icon by Andreas Ritzos.
Christ the King and High Priest detail
The crown design has been taken from another icon (from Patmos, Greece) at patron's request.
Athonite Christ
'This is the image in the likeness of which man was created; and this is why our Saviour, who is the Image of God was moved to pity for man who had been fashioned to his likeness. Let us keep our eyes fixed, then, on this image of God, so as to be reformed in his likeness'.
Origen Homily on Genesis
Christ the Saviour, after the original 13th c. icon, Serbian Monastery of Chilander, Mount Athos. Commissioned for St John's Church, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England.
Holy Face
'If sight of the one we love clearly makes us change completely, so that we turn cheerful, glad and carefree, what will the face of the Lord not do as He comes to dwell, invisible, in a pure soul?'
St John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Original composition by Helen McIldowie-Jenkins; inspired by the work of Fr.Gregory Kroug. Gesso and linen on elm support,
Painted in memory of Joan and Kenneth McIldowie-Jenkins.
Christ the Saviour
Commissioned as a ‘Remembrance Icon’ for the chapel of the Cathedral School, Llandaff, Cardiff, this image is a copy of the famous 6th c, wax encaustic icon at St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai. As a rare surviving example of late Roman and pre-iconoclastic Imperial painting, this icon depicts Christ as Judge and Saviour, holding the book of the Word and with his hand raised in the blessing gesture. The distinct asymmetry of the face is regarded by some (including monks at Sinai) as representing hypostatic union of Christ’s two natures, divine and human; i.e., the ‘hard’ side of Christ the Judge and the ‘soft’ side of Christ the Loving Redeemer.
Tempera and water-gilding on panel
Wedding at Cana
‘Do whatever he tells you’.
John 2:5
Private commission (wedding gift) based on a 14th c Serbian icon. The icon depicts the moment during the wedding feast when the Virgin instructs the servants to obey Christ, upon which he performs the first miracle of his public ministry and turns the water into wine for the guests and thereby ‘saving the best wine for last’ as said by the president of the feast (John 2: 10), who is depicted on the right reaching out to Christ. The figures of the Bride and Bridegroom can be taken as metaphors for the relationship between the Church and Christ. The table is a metaphor for the altar and the eucharistic vessels.
Tempera and mordant gold leaf on panel.
Christ Enthroned in Majesty
Private commission (anniversary gift). Copy of the famous early 15th c icon at Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery at Goritsy after St. Andrei Rublev. Christ the Righteous Judge and Ruler of All (Pantocrator) is seated upon the Throne of Glory. He appears within an eight pointed star (representative of God) composed from an inner four-pointed green star of seraphim and cherubim nearestto the throne of God and an outer four-pointed red surrounded containing the tetramorph symbols of the Gospels.
Water-gilded, incised background, egg tempera on panel.