Where to learn icon painting

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martin634

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So, I was wondering what the process is/where can I go to learn icon painting according to the eastern traditions. After poking around on the internet, the only thing I could find was the Prosopon School of Iconology. This LOOKS legit to me, but I’m not really sure if the week long seminars they offer are sufficient to teach both the physical and spiritual aspects of icon painting (plus I’m not as interested in the Russian style). I welcome any and all comments. Thanks for your time, and God bless.
 
You might email EWTN. They recently had a program on called “Sacred Craft”. They might have a point of contact for you, depending on where you live in the world.

ewtnreligiouscatalogue.com/SACRED+CRAFT±+DVD/cid=264/page_no=4/edp_no=14246/shop.axd/ProductDetails

“A very informative and engaging lecture on Eastern Church Iconography. Using examples of multiple icons, Fr. Brendan McAnerny explains the theology of icons and examines the distinct characteristics and traits of the practice of the art.”

google.com/search?q=Fr.+Brendan+McAnerny&rlz=1I7ADBR_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7
 
Barbkw said:
You might email EWTN. They recently had a program on called “Sacred Craft”. They might have a point of contact for you, depending on where you live in the world.

ewtnreligiouscatalogue.com/SACRED+CRAFT±+DVD/cid=264/page_no=4/edp_no=14246/shop.axd/ProductDetails

“A very informative and engaging lecture on Eastern Church Iconography. Using examples of multiple icons, Fr. Brendan McAnerny explains the theology of icons and examines the distinct characteristics and traits of the practice of the art.”

google.com/search?q=Fr.+Brendan+McAnerny&rlz=1I7ADBR_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7
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Fr. Brendan teaches a two week summer class at the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology in Berkeley. Their fees to “audit” are very reasonable. I’ve taken his lecture class twice and the painting class once. I hope to take it again next summer.

He travels to teach as well. His website is DominICON I believe he said he’s going to stop teaching other places, getting on in years. 🙂

I thought the Sheptytsky Institute had classes in painting holy icons but I can’t find anything on their site about it.

Some secular organizations teach icon painting and I would strongly encourage not taking classes in that sort of a setting.
 
You may want to look at these two iconographers who do teach beginning classes.

nb.net/~pearson/

www.waynehajos.com

Both teach beginning classes with emphasis on prayer. The first does week-long icon painting retreats with scheduled prayer times each day.

Hope this helps…
 
Alveus_Lacuna said:
And this is why one should never learn how to do this from someone who isn’t Orthodox. This type of image is wrong on so many levels.

http://www.nb.net/~pearson/images/francis_stigB.jpg
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Would you mind elaborating? At first glance I see nothing wrong with this image. Of course I may once I get a closer look at it. If your argument is founded simply on the fact that Francis is a Catholic saint, then your argument is moot. The only flaw that I can think of off the top of my head is that the icon doesn’t appear to be in the traditional Italo-Byzantine style (i.e. the same style as the San Damiano Crucifix). If you’d like some classic examples of what Western iconography is capable of I highly recommend you all check out the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi. It is amazing. Sadly much of the iconography was destroyed or severely maimed in an earthquake over a decade ago.
 
Well, I don’t think Jesus is supposed to be a six-winged seraphim. That definitely looks off, but I’m also curious to hear more elaboration.
 
Upon further examination, I’m REALLY curious to see what the problem is, since the guy from the second website www.waynehajos.com (which I assume you approve of since he is Orthodox), studied under Peter Pearson, of whom you are critical.
 
martin634 said:
Well, I don’t think Jesus is supposed to be a six-winged seraphim. That definitely looks off, but I’m also curious to hear more elaboration.
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The icon is depicting the way Jesus appeared to St. Francis on Mt. LaVerna (if I remember correctly). Jesus himself is not a six-winged Seraph, but the wings of a Seraph are covering his body. I believe you’ll find the full story in St. Bonaventure’s biography of Francis, one of the best to date. 👍

On a side note, I have seen several of Peter Pearson’s icons that could certainly be considered “questionable”, “poor iconography”, and even “poor theology”, but this is not one of them.
 
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