Patrick Comerford
It was a day for being still and quiet in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, to have time to pray and think, to follow the cycle of the daily liturgy in Lichfield Cathedral, including the mid-day Eucharist and Evening Prayer, to meet some old friends, and to go for long walks around Stowe Pool and Minister, and out along Beacon Street to Cross in Hand Lane and the Hedgehog Vintage Inn.
I was in Lichfield yesterday (Monday 2 February 2026) for one of my regular but much-needed days that are like pilgrimages or self-guided retreats. Since I was in my late teens, Lichfield has been like a ‘spiritual home’ for me for the past 55 or 60 years.
And I lingered in the North Quire Aisle in Lichfield Cathedral in the early afternoon to see the current exhibition, ‘Icons by Hanna-Leena Ward’, displaying the work of a well-known icon-writer and artist.
The exhibition opened in Lichfield Cathedral last Friday (30 January 2026), and it continues for three weeks until Friday 19 February during the usual opening times in the cathedral.
Hanna-Leena Ward is a traditional Byzantine iconographer, illustrated manuscript painter, sacred geometry artist and teacher. She works in the traditional Byzantine styles and all the icons in the exhibition are her original works. Throughout these three weeks, she is sitting and working in the North Quire Aisle in the cathedral alongside her exhibition, demonstrating the traditional artistic techniques she uses to write an icon.
‘Iconography is a prayer and my hand is guided from above,’ she says. ‘Icons are not painted for exhibitions; they are for private prayer, but it is my duty to exhibit them, and to talk to people about them, because people don’t see them enough.’
Hanna-Leena Ward is a professional Byzantine Iconographer. She has researched and studied iconography and Orthodox Church painting under several masters from Greece, Russia, Romania, Finland and in the UK. She has a master’s degree in Sacred Traditional Arts from the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London, and she has completed the four-year diploma studies in iconography and wall painting at the King’s Foundation School Liturgical Arts Programme under the iconographer Aidan Hart.
There are over 60 icons and illustrations in the exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral, including icons, monochromes, drawings and illustrated manuscripts. They range from a pair of royal doors depicting the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation to three monochrome round paintings of Christ the Pantocrator, measuring 550 mm x 550 mm and similar to the patterns of Christ the Pantocrator seen in the domes of many Greek Orthodox churches.
The traditional themes depicted in the icons include the Nativity, the Transfiguration or Metamorphosis, the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, Saint John the Baptist, the Visitation of Abraham, the Raising of Lazarus, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection or Harrowing of Hell, angels, saints and prophets, including Isaiah and Elijah and three unusual icons of Saint James of Compostella. There are framed illuminated letters and an illuminated Lord’s Prayer.
The majority of her works in the exhibition are in the traditional Byzantine and Greek styles, but a small number of items also show Coptic, Armenian and Finnish influences.
Hanna Ward is especially interested in church wall painting and has been to Romania to research fresco painting under the church painter Adrian Iurco. She has also assisted Aidan Hart with the fresco of the Transfiguration at Leeds.
She has researched sacred geometry and underlying symbolism in church architecture as she is an interior designer and has spent her working life in architectural design and drafting. Hanna has painted and taught traditional folk art for many years, and this has given her strong technical skills and a foundation for mastering complex icon and wall painting, which is now her calling and passion. She believes that when creating contemporary icons it is important to obey liturgical principles, while allowing creativity, in order to uphold this very special image of prayer.
The works in her current exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral are created as images of prayer, and they invite stillness, a moment to rest, and quiet reflection within the cathedral.
Hanna-Leena Ward is based at the Caterham Icon School in Surrey and both teaches icon painting and works for commissions. She is in Dublin next month leading an icon painting course in Saint Alphonsus Monastery (8-13 March) and is working on plans for an exhibition in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
She is running other courses, exhibitions and retreats in the coming months for the King’s Foundation, Shoreditch, London, Worth Abbey near Gatwick, and there are one and two-week courses, and, half-day and full-time classes in her studio in Caterham, as well as a 12-day intensive course in icon painting on the Greek island or Mytilene or Lesvos from 4 to 16 May.
The exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral is open until 19 February, during usual visitor opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 17:00 and Sunday 12:00 to 17:00. Check the Lichfield Cathedral website for updates and Hannah-Leena Ward’s website for more information about her work.
