In this workshop, twelve participants will work together over a week to make an Orthodox icon using traditional methods and materials. The workshop provides the experience of making an icon by using the prototype of Christ the Pantocrator created by Symeon for this purpose.
Together each participant will experience the beauty, challenge, and wonder that happens in making an icon. In the class, we will: create a drawing without tracing; make paint from earth pigments; paint with egg tempera paint; oil gild with gold leaf; and name the icon. The class includes all the materials and tools needed for completing the icon.
Taught by Symeon van Donkelaar, an iconographer, who after completing a traditional apprenticeship in a Greek Orthodox monastery, has been working for the last 20 years to create a contemporary iconographic vision for prayer in Canada.
His work is enriched by a love of nature. To make the icon’s wooden panel, he first harvests a tree. All of the icon’s colours come from the earth around his studio and share in the heritage of the land — its culture, history and spirit. In this way, even the pigments used in an icon can witness the love
of God that exists in the soil and rocks of the earth. Symeon paints,
exhibits, and teaches regularly in diverse settings across North America,
and works as a full-time iconographer in the Conestoga Iconographic
Studio outside St. Jacobs, Ontario.
- Dates: Sunday–Friday, June 21–26, 2020
- Arrivals and registration: 4:00 pm Sunday; ends 8 pm on Friday.
- Fee: $350 for the teaching and supplies + $400 for overnight accommodation and all meals.
- Deposit: $100.
- Registration deadline: June 14, 2020
All retreats and quiet days at St. John’s Convent take place in the milieu of a contemporary monastic community which has a daily rhythm of prayer. All guests are invited to take part in the daily Eucharist, and those staying overnight may like to join us in the Divine Office (Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline).
St John’s Convent Guest House
233 Cummer Avenue
Toronto, ON
M2M 2E8
Phone 416-226-2201 ext 305
Email: [email protected]