Punchbowl Church displays ancient art’s Modern Mastery

Lurnea's Samih Louka hand crafted every icon painting at Punchbowl's St Demiana & and St Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church. PHOTO: NICK BLOUKOS.

BY VANESSA WATSON
8/6/2011

MICHELANGELO adorned the ceiling of The Vatican’s Sistine Chapel with his masterpieces but you only have to go to Punchbowl to see Samih Louka’s religious artworks.

For about 15 years, Mr Louka, 67, has lovingly hand crafted each of the 46 icon paintings displayed at the St Demiana & and St Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church.

“It is a gift from God,” he said, quickly deflecting any praise for his personal skill.

Born in Cairo, and speaking mostly through a translator, he described how he painted the faces of saints and martyrs in his icon paintings.

As he speaks, light refracts from his paintings’ gold gilding, giving the Punchbowl building’s interior an ethereal glow. “You can always tell the Coptic icon from the Roman Byzantine because their proportions are so different,” the Lurnea resident said.

“The large eyes symbolise divine knowledge. The mouths are drawn quite small, because it’s not about speaking, but listening.”

Heavily steeped in symbolism, components of each picture could be decoded to reveal their underlying narratives, he said.

“The martyr has an angel over him, holding a crown. So when you see the angel, you know straight away that person died as a martyr.

“The Coptic icon depicts those people in a heavenly state, it never depicts the pain and sorrow that the person endured, their tortures or their persecution. No blood, no suffering.”

Each icon requires elaborate preparation, beginning as a piece of timber panel covered with layers of natural linen fixed in place with glue.

Once prepared, it’s decorated with natural oxides mixed with vinegar and egg tempura before being blessed and hung.

Mr Louka, who runs weekly icon painting workshops at Punchbowl and lectures in iconography, said Coptic art has roots reaching back to the Hellenism of late antiquity and the last days of the Egyptian pharaohs.

“This is my culture. I feel this part of art belongs to us. It’s our tradition,” he said.

His artwork also hangs from the walls of the Archangel and St Bishoy church at Mt Druitt and a church near San Jose in California.

Source: