About Me

Hi, I’m Julia Bridget Hayes

I was born in South Africa and my family converted to Orthodoxy when I was a young child in 1987. I studied photography for a year at the Pretoria Technikon, but realised that it was not what God was calling me to do. Since I was a teen I had drawn and painted daily, and having asked God in prayer how I was supposed to use this skill, the answer came when I was told that I would be sent to Greece to learn iconography.

I came to Greece in 1998 to study Theology at the Social Theology Faculty of the University of Athens on a scholarship. On completing my degree I returned to South Africa for two years where I worked as an iconographer and gave talks and seminars on the theology of the icon. I also taught catechism at the Catechetical School of Alexandria of the Archdiocese of Johannesburg and Pretoria as well as with youth in my parish of St Nicholas of Japan and people preparing for baptism.  In 2005 I returned to Greece with a scholarship and completed my master’s degree in Theology (Liturgics) in 2007 on the subject of "Baptism in the Catechisms of St Cyril of Jerusalem".

In 2008 I started taking classes with master iconographer George Kordis both at the Theology Faculty of the University of Athens and at the Eikonourgia School of Iconography.

I strive to make each icon I paint a unique expression of the of the Church’s tradition by capturing the movement and presence of the depicted persons in light, line and colour. I like to achieve chromatic harmony by mainly using a limited tetrachrome pallete. In the words of iconographer Aidan Hart, her work captures “the appreciation of form found in Byzantine works with the translucency and painterliness that the Russians have perfected.”

My hand-painted icons are in churches and private collections in Greece, South Africa, UK, Ukraine, Finland, Belgium, Romania, Serbia, Czech Republic, Australia, USA, Canada, Russia, Indonesia and Argentina , and have also been published in the Eastern/ Greek Orthodox Bible (NT), the collection of Afrikaans poems by Fr Jacobus van der Riet, “Die Onsienlike Son” and the book “Ἅγιος Δημήτριος ὁ Λουμπαρδιάρης” by Charalambos Bousias and Ioannis Pervainas, as well as the first Czech translation of the Ladder of Divine Ascent by Alana Sarkissian and the cover of the book “T.F Torrance and Eastern Orthodoxy” edited by Fr Matthew Baker and Todd Spiegel.

I also designed a logo for the Archdiocese of Athens children’s camps in 2013.

My icon of St Kassiani features on the cover of the Cappella Romana album "Hymns of Kassiani", released in 2021

In 2015 I was included in the 12th volume of the "Great Orthodox Christian Encyclopedia" ("Μεγάλη Ορθόδοξη Χριστιανική Εγκυκλοπαίδια" - Stratigikes Ekdosies) with other Contemporary Iconographers.

In September 2017, seeing the need for iconography tutorial that were accessible to those who can't attend live workshops and also reasonably prices, started the Byzantine Iconography Video Tutorial Project on Patreon with the aim of producing iconography tutorials starting from the fundamentals of drawing and progressing to painting. There are currently over 50 tutorials available. Once each series is completed they are available on Udemy.

I have translated Orthodox books and articles from Greek to English as "Avvakum the Bearfoot" by Monk Theodoretos the Hagiorite.

Despite not becoming a professional photographer I still have a passion for photography which I use mainly to capture life in the Orthodox Church. Some of my photographs have been published in the book  “Ἅγιος Δημήτριος ὁ Λουμπαρδιάρης” about the church of Saint Dimitrios Loumbardiaris on Philopappou Hill in Athens.

I also enjoy making detailed sketch notes of Orthodox homilies and podcasts in English and Greek. Subscribe to my blog where I will be sharing them.

For more information about Julia you can read this interview in Orthodox Arts Journal.
​Interview in Margutte Magazine (English/ Italian)