Designing Icons:
3rd - 8th February 2008

• A workshop designed to understand Scripture and theology in icons
• 2008 focus on Icons of Our Lady with illustrated talks
• Preparing a design for the Icon of the Mother and Child
• In-depth tuition of a small group

Many people have a go at painting icons without having any idea of the special way they are designed as a ‘homily in paint.’ Each icon is based on a ‘spiritual flow’ diagram, through which the iconographer draws our attention to particular aspects of Scripture, often relating Old and New Testaments.

The face of Our Lady is drawn according to careful rules which emphasise her compassion. This week gives the opportunity to study the icons of Our Lady in depth through slide lectures and to draw the ‘podlinnik’ - the master design for an icon.

Icon Painting Workshop:
8th- 13th June 2008

• This is the Belmont annual icon painting workshop, now in it’s 18th year!
• This year painting Our Lady of the Don icon to explore it’s spiritual beauty
• An opportunity to use the ‘petit lac’ (melted colour technique, discovered by iconographers to show the luminosity of the transfigured person

What do we see when we look at the face of Mary, Virgin and Mother? In the face of Mary we glimpse what it is like to become radiant with the Holy Spirit.

How do we show God made man in the face of a child? “God became man so that man might become God” - Mary is the woman who shows us how to receive the Holy Spirit so that we may fulfil our destiny. What does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of God?

Going for Gold!
16th - 21st November 2008

• A workshop to learn the art of making gesso and gilding icons
• In depth tuition for a small group
• Beginners will have the option of completing a simple decorative cross while the more experienced may work on personal projects

At Last - How to make Gesso and put Gold on your Icon! Most people on the Belmont icon course have expressed, at one time or another, the desire to learn how to gesso and gild. This is a straightforward course, giving you a chance to do both gesso and gilding. We make gesso ( the ground used on all icons), apply bole (the gilding ‘cushion’) and try water (burnished glossy) and oil (matt, duller finish) gilding.

You will need to bring your own gold and gilding equipment (list available). Some materials supplied.

Belmont Icons 2005 Course Review: The Eastern Pieta

“This icon has two titles by which it is most commonly known -‘The Bridegroom’ and ‘Do not weep for me, O Mother’. These two titles come to us from the Byzantine Church’s celebration of Holy Week, in which the theme of Christ the Bridegroom is a major focus, and from which the icon of the Bridegroom speaks to us most eloquently, in its true liturgical context. Marriage imagery was used so much to describe the covenant - which God had established with Israel in the Wisdom and Prophetic literature of the Old Testament - that the later rabbis spoke of the Covenant of Sinai as symbolising God’s marriage to Israel.”

“This year I was blessed to have two wonderful opportunities for spiritual growth. The first of these was an icon painting course (for beginners mostly) at Belmont Abbey . Dom Dyfrig explained that the Orthodox faithful fast from the Eucharist especially during Holy Week, because the Bridegroom has been taken away, hence the title of our icon. Both Sr Petra Clare and Dom Dyfrig helped us to attune ourselves to the spirituality of icons, explaining how they are conveying in a different way the same realities expressed through the words and actions of Scripture and liturgy. I found the Belmont workshop was the best ongoing formation course I have ever had.