Ayman Bitar, artist who excelled in drawing icons locally and internationally

Homs, ST- The Syrian artist Ayman Bitar is considered a creative artist in drawing icons for he has been drawing for about forty years in most churches in the world. He has a collection of wooden icons and murals for Syrian and international churches that reflect the spiritual state of these works.

Bitar is the son of the Syrian school specialized in iconography. The creativity of this school appeared before the seventh century AD . It was the most important of its kind and it presented to the world the most beautiful icons in form, content and artistic value.

Sana met with the artist Bitar in the “Church of Our Lady of Peace” at Bustan Al-Diwan neighborhood of Old Homs during his work on drawing a group of icons. He pointed out that he received a scholarship in Greece in 1989. He stayed there for twelve years after graduating from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Damascus and worked in many churches in various countries.

He explained that he specialized in drawing icons, which requires in addition to talent and passion that the artist be apprenticed at the hands of a senior artists of this kind of arts, indicating the importance of steps in preparing the icon, especially the selection of the right materials and colors to ensure the implementation of a work lasting hundreds of years.

Bitar believes that before drawing the icon, the artist must know very well the main characteristics of this icon.  He stressed the importance of the existence of technical committees of clergy specialized in icon science whose aim is to verify them (icons), “artistically and theology” in accordance with religious principles.

Among the most important works of Bitar’s icons is “Homs’ Saints “, which is a precedent in the field of icons, where he gathered saints of different eras within one icon and the same national dimension. This icon also reflected the holiness and purity of the Syrian land, which gave birth to many Saints .

As a result of his study in Greece, he was evidently influenced by the style of traditional Greek schools, where he spent years in Greece moving between its churches and monasteries.

Bitar born in Homs in 1963, is a distinguished artist who  has the ability to keep up with the modern  schools in their natural orientation and openness to the West to contribute to the restoration of the artistic spirit of the Eastern Antioch Church.

M.Wassouf