A resource for all those interested in Icons and Iconography
Belmont Abbey Icon Retreats
Icon Workshop Retreats at Belmont Abbey
Beginners Icon Workshop
Monday 04 – Saturday 09 August 2025. Cost £400.
The subject of this workshop is the Mandylion.
The Mandylion, meaning ‘small cloth’ or ‘towel’ is similar to Veronica’s veil and believed to have touched the face of Christ, retaining his features on the cloth.
We are happy to run regular Icon Workshops at Belmont run by the Peruvian Iconographer, Dom Alex Echeandía, who is a monk of Belmont and prior of our foundation outside Lima.
These Workshops offer the chance to learn and practice the art of writing icons in the contemplative calm of a Benedictine monastery.
Normally each year there are courses for Beginners and Intermediates. Each day Dom Alex will demonstrate techniques, then offer support and accompaniment in painting. The designs applied to the board will be built up with colour layers to complete the icon.
Dom Alex Echeandia is an Iconographer, trained in the UK and Ukraine. He studied theology at Blackfriars, Oxford. He is currently Prior of the Monastery of the Incarnation of at Lurin. Recent commissions include an icon of St Cuthbert for Buckfast Abbey, and he featured on the BBC4 Programme ‘The Monastery’ where he prepared an icon of St Michael. He leads workshops and retreats in Britain and Peru.
