Courses

ICON PAINTING COURSES 2010

Full details of Icon painting courses in 2010 are listed in

The Iconographers Review from Autumn 2009 issue onwards.

ICON PAINTING COURSES 2009

Details

Icon painting workshop run by Aidan Hart

18th - 22nd May
01743 792555
Icon painting workshops run by Aidan Hart to be held at the beautiful manor of
Walcot Hall, Lydbury North, Shropshire, as in previous years.
THE COURSE IS NOW FULLY BOOKED, BUT IT IS WORTHWHILE GOING ON THE WAITING LIST IN CASE OTHERS PULL OUT. If the proposed School is founded we will
run a further one or two icon painting courses sometime in July, August or September.
Please email Aidan Hart at mail@aidanharticons.com if you are interested in any of these icon workshops.

June

Alton Abbey
01420562145 Gesso Weekend - Alton Abbey
Dom Anselm, Alton Abbey, Beech Road,
Beech, Alton, Hampshire
June TBA
01420562145 Icon Writing Course 1 - Alton Abbey
(waiting list).

3-6th June

Belmont Abbey
e-mail retreats@belmontabbey.org.uk tel. 01432 374712
sanctiangeli@btinternet.com tel. 01456 415218
Belmont Abbey there will be the usual
Gospel and icon workshop with Sister Petra
Clare and Father Dyfrig ,

15th June -20th June

Pandora Art Studio in Endicott, NY

The Motherhood 6 day class Theory: The Motherhood. Iconological explanations
Practice: Icon of The Motherhood.
Students must purchase a board and transfer the image, prepare clay and apply gold prior to the class.( Details will be available soon apply elena@iconboards.com )

15th-21st June

Turvey Icon Workshop
01234 881432 Turvey Icon Workshop
Led by Sister Esther. The Course includes
daily meditative reflection on an icon, some teaching about icons, drawing exercises in relation to the icon you are painting as well as actually painting an icon. For details and bookings contact Turvey Icon Painting Course with Sister Esther at Turvey Abbey, Turvey, Beds. Mk43 8DE for booking as soon as possible.

July TBA

Alton Abbey (waiting list)
01420562145 Icon Writing Course 2 - Alton Abbey (waiting list).
31July- 2 Aug

2-7 Aug

The Emmaus Centre.
GESSO WEEKEND:
Preparing a board for Icon painting.
Sr. Annette DMJ and
Icon Workshop led by Sister Annette
Lawrence DMJ at The Emmaus Centre.
Practical instruction in the art of icon
painting, prayer and reflection on icons.
Suitable for beginners and the more
experienced. Contact The Emmaus Centre,
Layham Road, West Wickham, Kent
BR4 9QJ

August Gilding weekend - Alton Abbey (waiting list).

August Icon Writing Course 3 - Alton Abbey (waiting list).

5th & 6th September

The Fellowship of Saint Luke.
7th -12thSeptember An advanced Icon Study Course, 5th and 6th September and a mixed experienced course,
7th-12th September organised by The Fellowship of Saint Luke. and tutored by a master of the Prosopon School. The fees for these two have yet to be decided. This will be done within the next few weeks.
The course will take place at Sunbury Court, Sunbury on Thames, Middlesex. This course is for those already practised in the technique of the Prosopon School and also beginners. For more information please call Annie Shaw on:
01932 788346,mobile. 07730011498, e-mail fellowshipofsaintluke@fsmail.nat or c/o 191, French Street, Lower Sunbury, Middx. TW16 5JY

September 7-12

Pandora Art Studio in Endicott, NY

The Fatherhood 6 day class For intermediate and advanced students
Theory: The Fatherhood. Iconological explanations Practice: Icon of The Fatherhood Students must purchase a board and transfer the image, prepare clay and apply gold prior to the class.( The details will be available soon)

14th -18th Sept

Icon Painting Worksop with Aidan Hart
01743 792555 Icon Painting Worksop with Aidan Hart
There is the chance that this course will be held in a different venue in Shropshire due to the probable foundation of a School of Liturgical Arts near Bridgnorth
THE COURSE IS HOWEVER NOW FULLY BOOKED, BUT IT IS WORTHWHILE GOING ON THE WAITING LIST IN CASE OTHERS PULL OUT. If the School is founded we will run a further one or two icon painting courses sometime in July, August or September. Please email me at mail@aidanharticons.com if you are interested in any of these icon workshops.

October 16-18,

Pandora Art Studio in Endicott, NY

3 day workshop
For intermediate and advanced students
The Pentecost ( Part1) Theory: The Pentecost. Iconological explanations
Practice: Icon of The Pentecost.
Students must purchase a board and transfer the image, prepare clay and apply gold prior to the class.( The details will be available soon)
November 20-22, at Pandora Art Studio in Endicott, NY 3 day workshop
For intermediate and advanced students
The Pentecost ( Part 2)
Continuation of the theological explanation and practice
Theory: The Pentecost. Iconological explanations
Practice: Icon of The Pentecost

Booking: For all courses please telephone before making arrangements for B/B etc as course numbers are generally only 10/15 people and places soon fill up.

PROGRAMME 2008

3rd-8th February - 01456 415218

At Belmont Abbey in Hereford. Designing Icons: Scripture and Theology in icons of Our Lady. This will combine slide lectures with drawing.
Contact Sr Petra Clare Sancti Angeli Skete 01456 415218

February 10th

Sunday of Orthodoxy with the Melkite Parish of St Barnabas in Pimlico

March 17th – 22nd - 01932 788346

Fellowship of Saint Luke

Russian / Byzantine Icon painting Courses for 2008

March 30th - April 4th : Workshop
6 day workshop convened by Annie Shaw to help students develope their individual skills in painting in the Russian float painting method. This proved very successful in 2007. This year we will be painting St. Cuthbert. Students to bring their own pigments, a gessoed board is provided.
Fee £275.00

September 13th - 14th : Advanced Study Course.
2 day course to further ones knowledge of the construction of Byzantine icons and the Russian float painting technique; held by our Russian Master Nikita Andrejev of the Prosopon School.
Fee £90.00

September 15th - 20th : Russian Master Workshop
Nikita Andrejev will hold a mixed experience 6 day workshop, when an icon will be completed. He will take us through all the stages of painting an icon both technically and spiritually. All materials will be provided including a gessoed board.
Fee £350.00

Again we are at Sunbury Court, the international conference centre of The Salvation Army. This wonderful C18th building is set in beautifully landscaped grounds close to the River Thames and provides excellent facilities including inexpensive B&B. It is close to the M3 and M25 and has good rail links to London Waterloo.

Please contact Annie Shaw for further details at :
The Fellowship of Saint Luke
c/o191, French Street, Lower Sunbury. Middx. TW16 5JY.
Tel/fax. 01932 788346. Mobile 077300 11498
Email: fellowshipofsaintluke@fsmail.net

April 2nd – 8th - 01234 881432

Icon Workshop led by Sister Esther OSB at Turvey Abbey. All Courses include a daily meditative reflection session on an icon, some teaching about icons, drawing exercises in relation to the icon you are painting as well as actually painting an icon.

May – May - 01743 792555 (COURSE FULL IN 2008)

Icon Painting Workshop with Aidan Hart at Walcot Hall, Lydbury, North Shropshire. This week Aidan will be concentrating on flesh parts, faces and hands. The cost for the teaching is £255. Contact: Aidan Hart, 4 Station Road, Pontesbury, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY5 OQY

May 24th - June 10th

I'd like to invite you on a unique journey: our Fourth Annual Tour of Russian Icons. As you have a special interest in Eastern Christian Sacred Art, I want to bring to your attention a trip that was prepared for a traveler like yourself. We won't follow any standard itineraries and even in the world famous and well renowned places we will do something uniquely special, which I hope you will remember for a long time.

I will be your tour director throughout the trip and I'll try to give you some valuable insights in the Russian state and Church history. Because of some personal contacts that were established over the years of traveling with groups, we will be able to visit sites that are practically inaccessible to others.

We will travel from May 24 to June 10, 2008. During this time we plan to visit many famous museums with equally famous icon collections, along with countless churches and monasteries that house ancient and modern frescoes. Some of the very special places on our itinerary are the Monastery at Ferapontovo ("Northern Sistine Chapel") with frescoes by Dionysius, and 12 century churches in Novgorod and Pskov that are hardly ever visited. What I believe will be of great importance, is our meetings with people who try to rescue, safe or multiply heavenly realm in our earthly reality. Our visits to various icon studios and restorers' workshops to learn something new or share experiences, will be of interest to mature iconographers as well as to students of iconography. Our special spiritual pilgrimage, or art tour, can easily satisfy an academic expert or a simple pilgrim because the purpose of it is to attempt to glimpse at eternal Beauty revealed to us through those "Windows to Heaven".

The deadline for the trip is set for February 14th, 2008. We can accommodate only a limited number of participants, which is to say that if you are interested, please request the document with details about the trip and sign up soon!

Also, with this e-mail, I'd like to announce a forthcoming trip "Byzantine Greece" that may be of equal interest to you. Greece with all its natural and man made wonders became a tourist destination millennia ago, and during the 20th century became one of the top destinations in Europe. Lately, the treasures of the Byzantine Art preserved in Geek monuments and museums started to attract a lot of interest. However, usually such a Sacred Art treat was given as an additional bonus to a general tourist trip. Our intent is to welcome you on a venture that in the course of two weeks will deal extensively with the Christian Sacred Art from the catacomb frescoes in Thessaloniki, through the centuries, up to the glorious splendor of the Paleologian Renaissance so vividly demonstrated in the monuments of Mystras. Full information on that trip that will take place in the first part of September 2008 will be available on our web site www.orthodoxtours.com shortly. Besides the tours of Sacred Art, you may find some other interesting offers on our web site. We always happy to welcome visitors and hope that you'll share the information about us with your family and friends.

Also, please visit the web site of our good friend Peter de Ruyter: www.IconsExplained.com. Besides being one of the most comprehensive sources on the net devoted to Sacred Art, it hosts a separate page with an interactive map, pictures and descriptions of some of the places that we will visit during some of our journeys.

Thank you very much for your attention and time and may God bless you in this year and always! Fr Iiya Gotlinsky e-mail: frilya@verizon.net

June 1st –7th - 01766 781344

Nikita Andrejev (Prosopon School) will be running a workshop in Wales. Contact Marianna Colyer, Wales Orthodox Mission, Sea View, High Street, Harlech, Gwynedd LL46 2YA. Tel: 01766 781344 (International STD - +44 1766) Fax: 1766 780932 e-mail: colyer@lineone.net The tuition fee for 2007 is £320.00

June TBA - 01420562145

Gesso Weekend – Alton Abbey
Dom Anselm, Alton Abbey, Beech Road, Beech, Alton, Hampshire

June TBA - 01420562145

Icon Writing Course 1 – Alton Abbey (waiting list).

June 10th - 15th - 01456 415218 Sister Petra Clare

At Belmont Abbey this will be the usual Gospel and icon workshop with Father Dyfrig, based this year on Our Lady of the Don ( an Elousia). I don’t usually teach the Russian method of melted colour (‘petit lac’) in any depth, although I use it extensively myself - there is no other way to create an extraordinary depth and mystery in facial tones - but this year I am giving a ‘once-off’ workshop in it. Although the effects are so beautiful, many people find it a big challenge, because you have to be very clear what you are doing for it to ‘work.’ By concentrating on just the faces of the Mother and Child, with templates for the key stages, I hope to reduce the confusion!

13th – 19th June - 01234 881432

Icon Workshop led by Sister Esther OSB at Turvey Abbey. All courses include a daily meditative reflective session on an icon, some teaching about icons, drawing exercises in relation to the icon you are painting as well as actually painting an icon

July TBA - 01420562145

Icon Writing Course 2 – Alton Abbey (waiting list).

July TBA - 01234 881432

Icon Workshop led by Sister Esther OSB and Sister Annette Lawrence DMJ at The Emmaus Centre. Practical instruction in the art of icon painting, prayer and reflection on icons. Suitable for beginners and the more experienced. Contact The Emmaus Centre, Layham Road, West Wickham, Kent BR4 9QJ

August TBA Gilding weekend – Alton Abbey (waiting list)

August TBA Icon Writing Course 3 – Alton Abbey (waiting list). Details – see June 9th

Sept 17th – 21st - 01743 792555

Icon Painting Workshop with Aidan Hart at Walcot Hall, Lydbury, North Shropshire. This week Aidan will be concentrating on garments and backgrounds. The cost for the teaching is £255. Contact: Aidan Hart, 4 Station Road, Pontesbury, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY5 OQY

September 13th - 14th

The Fellowship of Saint Luke is to hold a two day Advanced Study Course into the techniques of icon painting in the Russian/ Byzantine style, as taught by The Prosopon School. This is to be run by Nikita Andrejev and to be held at Sunbury Court.
Cost £ 90.00
Please contact Annie Shaw for further information regarding the course. Contact Annie Shaw on: 01932 788346, mobile no. 07730011498, e-mail on fellowshipofsaintluke@fsmail.net. or write c/o 191, French Street, Lower Sunbury, Middx. TW16 5JY.

September 15th – 20th - 01932 788346

The Fellowship of Saint Luke is to convene a six day icon painting course in The Salvation Army’s Conference Centre at the C18th Sunbury Court, Lower Sunbury. Middx. Nikita Andrejev, the son of the founder of the Prosopon School, will be taking students through the painting of an icon in the Russian/ Byzantine float style; while illuminating on the theological meaning of the icon. This course is for experienced and beginners alike. As usual all materials will be supplied including a gessoed board. The course fee is £ 350.00.
B&B at very reasonable prices is available at Sunbury Court, as are lunches and evening meals.
For more information please call Annie Shaw on: 01932 788346, mobile no. 07730011498, e-mail on fellowshipofsaintluke@fsmail.net. or write c/o 191, French Street, Lower Sunbury, Middx. TW16 5JY.

16th - 21st November - 01456 415218

Going for Gold -Gesso and gilding workshop. Sr Petra Clare at Belmont Abbey
This is the first time I have offered this in England. As all of us know preparing an icon board has a lot of pitfalls for the unwary! Tiny holes can leave the painting or water gilding pock-marked. I have studied gilding with professionals, and the gilders method of making and applying gesso seems to me the most foolproof - I have used it ever since! The course covers making boles, water gilding with matt and burnished finishes and oil gilding
Booking: For all courses please telephone before making arrangements for B/B etc as course numbers are generally only 10/15 people and places soon fill up

Writing an Icon in Ballygriffin

I have just spent a week in Ballygriffin, near Cork, Eire, on a course called ''Introduction to Iconography'' with a small group of five very special people and our tutor Sr. Clare O'Dwyer. The main aim was ''Reflection, Prayer and Technique''.
On the first evening the five of us were shown a completed Icon that we were to copy - Christ the Pantocrator - this is a picture of Christ's head and shoulders.
Icon is a Greek word and simply means an image or portrait of someone. Sacred icons are depictions, painted in a particular style, of Christ, His Mother, the Saints and Angels.

We began by tracing the outline of the Icon on the board. Prayers are said before and during the making of an Icon and we had sacred music to put us into a reflective mood. During the week we were staying in our own little bungalow. We would have breakfast and a delicious three course lunch in the dining area of the Nano Nagle Centre and then self cater in the evenings.   One evening a group of young people came to entertain with music; flutes, violins, ''squeezebox'', piano, bodrhain (Irish drum) - another ambition of mine accomplished!

The views from the windows were fantastic, peaceful with lovely trees. Fields full of their own sheep, cows and chickens who lay 100 eggs a day. One evening Sr. Mary was surprised and grateful when she discovered me putting the last chicken to bed!

As the week progressed so did the writing of the Icon, not painting, as we tell the words of the Bible on our boards. We got pleased. upset, had to undo some of the work but eventually got near to completing our Icon. We had a little service in the chapel and had the Icons blessed with holy water.

It was a wonderful week, all coming to an end far too quickly. I was grateful for the opportunity to learn more skills despite the fact that I have been ''writing'' Icons for three years. There is so much to learn in the skills, the history, the meaning of the many Icons, it's like a ballet in that it has its own language.

I have heard that one does not have to be an artist to write an Icon - it is the prayer and reflection that takes over. For me it is a wonderful thing to do and I'd recommend everyone to try it.

A special thank you to Sr. Clare for her direction. Sr. Elizabeth and her sister, Marie, who spent too short a time with us. All the sisters at the centre, Mary, Francis, Paula and Lancia and the kitchen staff who catered for our welfare.

Lastly I will mention how we were actually working with a building site around us! The bungalows and land are being refurbished and the building and workroom we were in was hardly complete so we were often able to hear the banging and machines. Despite all this we were able to work quietly in our room with the Gregorian Chants and candles lit around our tables. A wonderful, peaceful atmosphere.

Marcella Spreadbury, Presentation Associate Member from Redditch, Worcestershire (24th-30th June 2007)

STUDYING THE ICON

Sister Petra Clare

Introduction

There are now a large number of icon courses available. In many ways it is now possible to ‘pick and choose’ according to taste. This is much different than when I learnt the icon myself, in the late 70’s/ early 80’s when it was nearly impossible for non-Orthodox to get a sound training in the UK. At that time Guillaume Ramos-Poqui first opened my eyes to the icon, and Aidan Hart and Solrunn Ness, together with attending theoretical courses by Mariamna Fortunatta and others, filled the gap. However, the sheer variety of courses on offer now, often mean a budding iconographer learns - relatively easily - a number of skills superficially. The question becomes ever more pressing - what are the basic characteristics of an icon? What formation - moral, theological and technical does an iconographer really need to have?

How, in short can he become the ‘contemplative theologian’ described by Ouspensky. There are always questions to be addressed if a Catholic becomes a serious iconographer. In my own case, I would say the call to be an iconographer is part of my monastic vocation, which has made me think it through. One can point to the joint root of the tradition within both churches, and the considerable effort made by the Popes to fight iconoclasm in the eighth and ninth centuries. I think the tragedy was that - due to other pressing issues - the close relationship between theology and the icon was not fully worked out by western theologians. There is a gap in understanding. My own vocation has made me stand in that ‘gap’ - which is a painful place because, ultimately, it leads one to experience first hand the suffering of the divided church. However, till we can expose the wound no healing can take place.

The Work of Sancti Angeli

During the last thirty years of writing icons in the Catholic world (working on commissions for a number of churches and individuals in the UK and abroad) I have been approached many times by people wishing to learn the icon. Because teaching the icon is full time work, I have gradually developed a set of courses designed to give an in-depth formation in the basic principles of iconography.

The prototype course began when, during my monastic formation at St. Cecilia’s Abbey, Ryde, I was asked to give a short course for interested Sisters. Naturally, these focussed not only on technique, but on the underlying spiritual formation and theological principles. During that time I was also asked to do a study with Sister Bernadette, the choir mistress, on parallels between the icon and Gregorian chant, finding a remarkable interaction between the disciplines of sound and hand. This led, in due course, to my being asked to do an annual icon week at Belmont Abbey, where I found another colleague, Dom Dyfrig Harris - a bi-ritual priest, serving at the Ukrainian Church at Gloucester, who has a remarkable understanding of the relation of Scripture and Liturgy.

During the last ten years I have lived as a hermit, in the Benedictine vows, in the Highlands of Scotland, supporting myself by writing icons. Currently I am working on some large icons for the Carmelite shrine of St. Jude, near Aylesford. I have hoped that some other women would join me here, in this work of prayer and icon writing, but so far the life has proved too much of a challenge to attract aspirants!

From the numerous requests to teach the icon, an ‘in-depth’ course has gradually evolved. One request , which was to prove significant, was from Pluscarden Abbey, when the Abbot asked me to design and supervise an icon course, as part of formation studies for one of the monks. It is out of the papers for this course the Online Course has developed.

The Sancti Angeli website, originally developed to market icons, is gradually evolving into an East-West studies site, with some interesting papers, as well as the Online course units, available in the Associates area. I consider this online Association as a complementary work to the BAI, concentrating on the wider East-West issues of which the icon is a part.

Belmont Courses 2008

As the majority of requests for tuition come from south of the border, I am moving the courses I usually do in Scotland to Belmont Abbey this year (I may also move myself, if I can find a suitable place for a hermitage!). The focus will be on in-depth studies of particular aspects of the iconographers craft.

The units will be:-
3-8th February: Designing Icons: Scripture and Theology in icons of Our Lady. This will combine slide lectures with drawing. Few students seem to realise that it is the way the icon is drawn which makes it a ‘homily in paint.’ The drawing is a ‘spiritual flow diagram’ directing our eyes to particular aspects of the mystery. For example, one icon of the Visitation may emphasise the prophecies, another the Temple, another the sacrifice. We need to draw with awareness.

Most importantly, this week will deal with the challenge of drawing the threequarter
face of Mother and child in the Elousia icons. This is paradoxically both naturalistic
and more than naturalistic - what Kalkyrios calls ‘spiritual expressionism.’ So many
students want to draw and paint a beautiful Elousia, but get stuck because they skip over the drawing, or do not fully understand it.

10-15th June: This will be the usual Gospel and icon workshop with Father Dyfrig, based this year on Our Lady of the Don ( an Elousia). I don’t usually teach the Russian method of melted colour (‘petit lac’) in any depth, although I use it extensively myself - there is no other way to create an extraordinary depth and mystery in facial tones - but this year I am giving a ‘once-off’ workshop in it. Although the effects are so beautiful, many people find it a big challenge, because you have to be very clear what you are doing for it to ‘work.’ By concentrating on just the faces of the Mother and Child, with templates for the key stages, I hope to reduce the confusion!

16-21 November: Going for Gold -Gesso and gilding workshop. This is the first time I have offered this in England. As all of us know preparing an icon board has a lot of pitfalls for the unwary! Tiny holes can leave the painting or water gilding pock-marked. I have studied gilding with professionals, and the gilders method of making and applying gesso seems to me the most foolproof - I have used it ever since! The course covers making boles, water gilding with matt and burnished finishes and oil gilding.