Experience
The Icon Workshop
The Icon course dates for 2010 are in the planning stages.
This is an intensive course. You will learn how to prepare boards, and to make and apply traditional gesso and egg tempera. You will also be drawing and studying the icon forms, and of course, you will be putting it all together to paint your own icon, which you will take home with at the end of the class.
Heather MacKean, the instructor, is a master iconographer with decades of experience in the tradition. We could not have a more experienced and gracious teacher for this class. She will be guiding people through the whole process, as well as providing a detailed mid-week lecture on the history and meaning of icons. A must see!
Lunches, snacks, icon materials, one-on-one instruction, and lecture are all included in the price.
The cost for the whole week is $750.00. This might seem high, but the average cost of an icon of the size you will paint is about that amount, or more. The great advantage is that you will learn how to paint one yourself. Also, this price includes the pigments, gesso, hand-carved wood icon boards, gold (which has become quite expensive), food and instruction.
Lastly, the icon you will paint will become a genuine heirloom, as it will last generations. Traditional egg tempera is the most stable medium in the visual arts, for a host of reasons which will be covered in the class.
Each day of the course begins and ends with prayer. During the day, while you are painting and receiving instruction, there is always sacred music playing, and plenty of opportunity for silence and prayer. On the final evening, the icons are blessed.
You do not need drawing experience for this class. You will discover why in the course.
People in the past have made this week a kind of retreat time, and no one has left without sadness that the experience has come to an end. We have had Orthodox priests, Baptist ministers, Anglican ministers, and laity of all faiths attending the workshop, and many have come back for another class.
Some in the past have had to leave periodically for other errands or unavoidable responsibilities throughout the week, and this is no problem.
Please register early, as the class fills up quickly. Heather can only allow fifteen people.
* Out-of-town visitors: For those wanting to stay in an Orthodox household or environment, please check Egeria – Orthodox Home & Hospitality Exchange for local providers.
Egeria
