Icon artist creates King's gift to Pope Leo

Aidan Hart has received commissions from all over the world and has had several from King Charles III.

"You're praying with colour, like a musician gathers notes and makes a symphony."

That is how Shrewsbury-based icon painter, Aidan Hart, describes the process of creating his religious works of art.

He has received commissions from all over the world and has had several from King Charles III. Notably he designed the anointing screen for the Coronation, and recently was asked to create a piece of work to be gifted to Pope Leo.

The icon, of Edward the Confessor, a canonised King of England, was given to Pope Leo on Thursday, after he and the King prayed side by side in the Sistine Chapel.

"It's a great honour to have been asked in the first place," said Mr Hart.

"He wanted a St Edward... I had coins, of course, of the actual St Edward, so these showed what he looked like probably, so I did research first," he said.

The icon was gifted to Pope Leo on Thursday

"I'd done icons of him before… we decided to go for blue overgarment instead of purple, so there was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing."

"From the coin, we knew what sort of crown he may well have had with these dangly bits.

"I'm basically praying with colour, we can pray with words but we can also pray with colour."

He said the whole process took between 80 to 100 hours.

"The panel is made first… then you put gesso on, about 25 layers of the special form of plaster, and the paint is made of egg yolk binding together natural pigments, so the blue is actually azurite."

He said it was a "real joy" to see it handed over on the historic occasion, as the King became the first British monarch to pray with a pope since the Reformation in the 16th Century.

"He [King Charles] really is a servant, I think that's what I love about him," said Mr Hart.

"All the commissions and meetings I've had with him have shown me what a wonderful servant he is to the people, he really works hard, he doesn't sort of lounge around and do nothing."