Beginning Iconography Workshops

        Icon of the Good Shepherd                                                  finished icons from a recent workshop

From time to time Caroline teaches an Iconography Workshop for anyone who would be blessed by the experience of creating an icon. The class is suitable both for beginners who have no previous artistic training and for experienced painters. Instruction will include the significance and role of icons. Creating an icon is a spiritual discipline, involving prayer and meditation with each stroke of the iconographer’s brush. It takes many hours to make even a simple icon.

About icons:

For centuries icons have served as tangible reminders of the spiritual reality that encompass the world of the senses, and as such, impart grace to the faithful who gaze upon them. Everything shown in an icon is symbolic. The figures depicted in icons are intentionally stylized and two dimensional. The unseen  third  dimension of an icon is beyond the natural eye: an icon is a window into the spiritual dimension.

Participants should plan to be present from 8:30 until 4:00 or 4:30 for the entire week as if going on a retreat. During the workshop, we will enjoy Holy Communion, silence, group reflection, praying with icons, listening to Gregorian chant music, and have lively conversation during lunch. By the end of the week, each participant will have completed their own icon using a special acrylic paint suitable for iconography, and twenty-three carat gold leaf. All supplies will be provided, but participants are asked to bring a halogen or similar lamp for their own use.

Caroline Furlong Iconography