Christ the Savoir Orthodox Church hosts Fr. Mefodii, Master Iconographer and Instructor for the Prosopon School of Iconology, annually to lead 6-day workshops where each student completes an icon. Fr. Mefodii is an Orthodox hieromonk of the Skete of St. Maximos the Confessor in Palmyra, Virginia, who has been conducting workshops all over the U.S. and England.

The 2012 Workshop will be held:

Dates: Monday, September 17 through Saturday, September 22, 2012.

Daily hours: 9am - 4pm (8am on the 17th to complete registration.)

Total cost: $600, to include: tuition of $500 plus a non-refundable deposit of $100 for materials. To reserve your place, the deposit is due by September 1 to Jo Anne Laymon, payable to the Skete of St. Maximos.

For more information please contact:
Jo Anne Laymon, sttheodosiaiconguild@yahoo.com
Fr. Mefodii, sketestmaximos@embarqmail.com

Above:
1. On our final day the students displayed their icons with Fr. Mefodii holding one of the student's finished icons.
2. Students at work tracing their pattern onto the board.
3. Fr. Mefodii demonstrated the use of the compass for forming halos.

Above: Students receive individual assistance.

The workshop/retreat is conducted according to the traditional Byzantine-Russian icon-writing method of the Prosopon School of Iconography, a revival of the 15th century school of Andrei Rublev and founded by Vladislav Andreyev. The school offers both the technique of icon-writing and the spiritual symbolic aspects within the 21 steps of the process.

Above: Icons in progress, the early stages.

Only natural materials are used in this floating technique of egg tempera: wood, clay, pure gold leaf, and the pigments formed from ground minerals combined with egg yolk

The workshop-retreat is conducted in a silent, prayerful environment with the playing of liturgical music during some of the steps. Explanations/reflections on the spiritual meanings are presented before each step. No previous artistic experience is required as writing the icon is as much a contemplative form of prayer as an artistic discipline.

Above: Finished icons of students.

Beginning students are provided with step-by-step instructions to complete an icon of Archangels Michael or Gabriel. Other icons such as those of Christ, the Virgin, John the Baptist, and the Guardian Angel are available to those who have attended previous workshops and have them approved by Fr. Mefodii. For more information about the Prosopon School, visit: www.prosoponschool.org.