Icon Painting Workshop

Saint Gregory Palamas Greek Orthodox Monastery, Perrysville, OHIO

Dates and TimeS:

January 20-24, 2025

4:00am: Midnight office, Orthros, Divine Liturgy or Paraklesis

8:30am-11:30am: Iconography workshop

Noon: Akathist and Lunch

1pm-4pm: Iconography workshop

5 pm: Vespers, Dinner, Compline

Pilgrims may arrive Sunday afternoon before 5pm. The workshop will conclude Friday at noon.

Location:

St. Gregory Palamas Greek Orthodox Monastery
934 Co Rd 2256, Perrysville, OH 44864

About This Workshop:

This iconography workshop will offer participants a unique opportunity for Orthodox men to experience a week-long spiritual retreat at St. Gregory Palamas Greek Orthodox Monastery while learning to paint a traditional Byzantine icon from start to finish in egg tempera. Because of the monastery's  limited accommodations, this workshop is available only for male Orthodox pilgrims.

Pilgrims are invited to participate in the full cycle of monastic worship services (conducted primarily in English), providing a traditional prayer experience only possible in a monastery. Pilgrims will stay in the monastery guest house and will eat common meals with the monks in the trapeza. The instructor, Brian Matthew Whirledge, M.Ed., is an iconographer and teacher who has painted hundreds of icons for homes and churches across the country for over a decade.

This hands-on workshop is for Orthodox Christian men from any artistic background: beginners without artistic experience will create a successful icon while advanced painters will be challenged. Students will receive step-by-step instruction, demonstration, one-on-one attention, and all materials to paint this icon. This workshop is a spiritual retreat, as students will spend hours in prayer, brush in hand, face-to-face with Christ and the saints, as well as hours of corporate prayer in the services.

Brian will help you make egg tempera paint from scratch, develop an underpainting, gild with 23k gold leaf, and artfully develop color, form, and light with egg tempera paint. We'll discuss the history and theology of icons, and tour the church to see icons in context.

Traditional egg tempera is Brian’s preferred medium as well as the preference of iconographers for centuries. We’ll use eggs from his parents’ free-range chickens, and natural mineral pigments made by God Himself. Egg tempera uniquely transfigures creation into sacred images, combining the vegetable (wood panel), animal (eggs), and mineral (pigments) kingdoms.

Tuition:

Tuition $645, which includes instruction, all materials to complete an icon, room, and board at the monastery. Non-refundable deposit of $100 required to register; the balance is due three weeks before the first class (December 30, 2024). Please inquire about scholarships based on financial need and/or student status.

Registration:

Please register early. The class size is limited to 12 students. Register online with a $100 non-refundable deposit in my online store. You can also mail a check, pay by venmo, etc. (please contact me for my mailing address or other information).

About the icon:

You will paint your icon on an 8x10” panel. Brian will guide you through drawing, gilding with 23.5k gold leaf, and every step of painting with egg tempera. The workshop has a prayerful, retreat-like atmosphere within the setting of a monastic pilgrimage.

Materials & Supplies:

All materials and supplies are included with tuition:

• Gessoed panel, prepared with traditional gesso made from chalk and rabbit skin glue.

• A set of pigments

• A set of brushes

• 23.5K gold leaf and size

• A palette and palette knife

• Eggs

• Spray bottle, water cup, paper towels, brush soap, tape, pencil, etc.

• Handouts and printed materials

It is not necessary to bring any supplies, but you are welcome to bring your own brushes, a table easel, or any other supplies you want.