Icon Workshop

About the Event

Registration opened at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, March 13; it was full by 4 p.m. But we have a waiting list!

It is not unusual for people on the waiting list to eventually secure a spot in the workshop. Click here to go to the waiting list.

The annual icon workshop is one of our most popular offerings. Using traditional materials of egg tempera and gold leaf on gessoed panels, students in this workshop use techniques developed at the end of the Iconoclast period (before the year 1000 A.D.), to reveal, through a gradual, step-by-step process, face gradually emerging, glowing with an internal light. In this class, artistic experience and painting skills are not prerequisites. As our instructor takes you through each step in the process, a willingness trust that process are much more important. In fact, in this prayer activity, one is said to be “writing,” rather than “painting” the icon.

Each day of the workshop begins at 8:10 with Morning Prayer and concludes around 5:00 p.m.

Iconographer Suzanne Schleck has been teaching the class since its inception. A retired public school art teacher, Suzanne has studied for more than 20 years with the Rev. John Walsted, master iconographer and expert on 14th to 16th century Russian icons, and has taken additional workshops with Robert Lentz and the Prosopon School of Iconography. She is in great demand, and her work has been published in national Episcopal media and Princeton Theological Seminary.

This year’s icons will be Jonah, Our Lady of Protection, and the Holy Face.

Participants in the previously-offered icon workshops—lay people and clergy who have come from St. Stephen’s Church and beyond—have found it a deeply enriching experience. Many in the workshop are repeat students.

Workshop tuition and registration

Tuition of $375 includes instruction and all supplies. We are grateful that we have not needed to raise the rate in recent years.

Meals are on your own, and if you are coming from out of town, please be aware that you are responsible for your own lodging. St. Stephen’s has a café where you can purchase breakfast if you wish. There are several local restaurants and a small grocery store nearby.

Once we receive your deposit of $100 we will reserve your place. The balance is due by May 31, 2024.

Please do not register for this offering unless you can be here for the entire workshop.

Reservations, cancellations, and refunds

This workshop is very popular and there is always a waiting list. If you find you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so someone on the waiting list may fill your place.

If you are not paying full tuition with your registration, please note that the balance will be due by May 31. After that date, we may release your place to someone on the waiting list.

Payments are refundable until May 31.

After that date, your payment is refundable if we are able to fill you place with someone on the waiting list.

Paying by check

Online registration and payment is strongly encouraged. But if you decide to pay by check, please come during regular office hours, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. We discourage leaving checks in the office when it is not staffed.

Notification list

If you would like to be added to an email list to be notified when registration opens each year, follow this link. (If you have been on this list in the past, you do not need to sign up for this notification email again.)

Please note: signing up for this list does NOT reserve your place in the workshop–it simply provides a way for you to be alerted when registration opens each year.

Questions?

804.288.2867

Learn about our Icon Guild.

Contact

Suzanne Schleck