The Studio’s Letter of Appeal

About

For the last twenty years, Symeon has worked to create sacred icons of profound beauty for churches and homes across the US, Canada and Europe. He currently lives with his family in Central Alberta and works as a full-time, professional artist.

Symeon’s artwork has a unique style—offering simplicity and stillness in its vision, as well as a love of colour evident in its gem-like hues. As an iconographic artist, he was trained in the Greek/Byzantine expression of iconography. However, Symeon’s own temperament draws him more towards the wonder-informing styles such as the Romanesque or ancient Coptic, where the revelation of divine reality isn’t limited to naturalistic expression. Instead, in his work, we experience visual art that moves beyond nature and symbol to a direct expression of knowing and experience in its own right. Through the gravitas of his style, Symeon brings the real presence of Jesus Christ and his saints—those men and women fully alive in the Spirit—into the lives of those living today.

Symeon’s painted icons can be found in chapels and churches across Canada and the US, as well as in the homes of people around the world. His work also blesses the homes of many in the form of high-quality art prints, which the studio makes in-house in order to ensure that they remain accessible to everyone regardless of their earthly means.

Most Recent post

Moving to Edmonton

Moving to Edmonton

In August, my family and I once again found ourselves on the move. The opportunities that led us out west in the first place presented themselves in new and exciting ways in the Albertan capital city of Edmonton. We had thought of the home we had found outside Red Deer as a place where we …

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Recent Icon Articles

Saints Zenaida and Philonella

Saints Zenaida and Philonella

Sts. Zenaida and PhilonellaThe Charitable Physicians— October 11th — The story of Zenaida and Philonella is not well known in the Catholic Church, but it really should be. These two early Christian saints were bright, intelligent women who are the first canonized medical doctors for their work as physicians in the church. Through them we …

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Building The Mt. Carmel Altar

This summer the studio was blessed to be building an altar for the Mt. Carmel Spirituality Centre outside Edmonton, Alberta. If you’d like to see the altar’s progress, please feel free to view the regularly updated photo journal of it’s building found here: Building the Altar of Mt. Carmel

The Consecrated Altar

The Consecrated Altar

And so, with the Archbishop pouring out holy chrism oil onto the altar and proceeding to spread it across the altar table’s entire surface with his hand, the altar at Mt. Carmel is consecrated!

Sealing the Altar

Sealing the Altar

I was honoured to be invited to seal the altar during the chapel’s consecration. So, with the relics safely entombed, I set the table’s stone in place and sealed it in an act of completion.

Waiting for a blessing

Waiting for a blessing

Now the altar waits for the Bishop to come and consecrate it (and the new chapel) for use. My boys and I have been invited to attend and I’m looking forward to it next week.

Kind Words

His Icons lead one into a renewed Spirit of reverence and celebration.

It is my honor and my privilege to offer this testimonial of Symeon van Donkelaar’s Iconography. His style is elegant and simple and leads one to an experience of effulgence. His use of natural coloring is lustrous and gratifying. Following the traditional cannons of Iconography, he is true to the ancient traditions while offering new and notable interpretations. His Icons lead one into a renewed Spirit of reverence and celebration.
Fr. Edward J Tomasiewicz
Of blessed memory. Retired faculty member, DePaul University.

His icons are distinctive and beautiful …

Symeon’s philosophy, his insistence on local color, speaks to the incarnation: as God took on a specific body in a specific place, Symeon’s work is rooted in its particular location. His icons are distinctive and beautiful, at once otherworldly and folksy, both transcendent and intensely human. Grounded in time and place, these beautiful icons testify to God’s presence in our world, here and now.
Elissa Bjeletich
Author and podcaster

Symeon’s artwork calls us to a more profound regard for our fragile world.

The Incarnation calls us to a deep regard for all creatures, the beauty of flora and fauna, indeed, the earth under our feet. The earth we walk on is a reliquary and the minerals and colours of each particular place a sacred treasure. Symeon’s artwork, drawing as it does on the local palette of the land, calls each of us to a more profound regard for our fragile world, and deeper attention to the Holy Spirit who “is everywhere present and fillest all things”.
David J. Goa
Founding Director, Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life