I'll add a little to your thoughts.
I paint religious icons. The terminology is that one writes them because at the core it's not an artistic endevour; it's prayer.
I paint an icon every year or so, in retreat. It takes a week, and that is a discipline I've extended to painting models. Never be in a hurry to get it done without repecting the process. How slowly paint dries, what the proper amount of time is to let sizing for gold leaf get tacky, and so on.
As I say, it's prayerful. The principle instruments of the process are my brushes. I use acrylics or tempera, or I'd really be a monk in a cell somewhere going to a week of vespers while each coat of face color; dries on the face of Our Lord.
It's the usual Byzantine way to use natural brushes, but I prefer synthetic for acrylics.
I have two sets. When I go to retreat, we have the set we plan to use blessed by Father in a Mass the night before we begin.
I keep them in my box of icon stuff. They are kind of special to me.