Icon Workshop
Sunday evening, July 26-Friday afternoon, July 31, 2026
The annual icon workshop began at St. Stephen’s in 2011 and 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, a face, glowing with an internal light. In this class, artistic experience and painting skills are not prerequisites; trusting the process is the most important thing, as our instructor takes you through that process step by step. In this prayerful practice, one is said to be “writing,” rather than “painting” the icon.
Each weekday begins at 8:10 with Morning Prayer and concludes around 5:00 p.m. (though the group generally disperses around midday on Friday).
Participants in our 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.
The icons taught this summer are shown at the bottom of this page. First-time students may wish to write The Holy Face.
Use the tabs below to read more about the workshop.
Registration will open Sunday evening, March 15, 2026.
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.
The weekday schedule begins with Morning Prayer at 8:10 a.m. in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at St. Stephen’s Church. Students then move to their classroom in the parish house where one of St. Stephen’s clergy blesses each student’s hands, and the work begins. There is a break for lunch midday, and the day concludes around 5 p.m. Friday’s class time sometimes concludes earlier.
It is important that registrants be present for the entire week. There are no shortcuts to this process. This popular workshop always has a waiting list, and if you discover that you cannot attend the entire workshop, we ask you to allow your space to be taken by someone who can be there for the whole week.
For the 2026 workshop, tuition is $425 and includes instruction and all supplies. Please note that this fee does not include meals or lodging.
Registration opens in March each year and is linked from this page.
This workshop is so popular that registration has become a stressful process for some. To reduce anxiety, in 2025 we began using a lottery system. This means that you can register anytime during the registration window without being concerned about the order of registration. This year we will also be striving for a balance among those with no icon writing experience, those with some experience, and those with a good deal of experience. You’ll see a question on the registration form where you can indicate your level of experience. Since we are looking for balance, not expertise, there is no advantage to having more or less experience.
Registration opens Sunday, March 15 at 7 p.m. and closes at midnight, Sunday, March 22. Participants will be selected Tuesday, March 24; that afternoon we will notify registrants by email of their status. Those who receive a placement will receive instructions about how to secure their placement by paying a deposit of $125 by 5 p.m. March 26; after that, their place may be offered to someone on the waiting list. The full tuition balance is due by Monday, June 1, 2026. The tuition of $425 includes instruction and all supplies.
If you do end up on the waiting list, do not lose hope. We often have students whose plans change, opening up additional spots.
Many students come from out of town to attend the icon workshop. Please know that meals and lodging are “on your own.” The Café @ St. Stephen’s is open until 11 a.m. and offers coffee, tea, espresso drinks, bottled and canned drinks, and some breakfast and snack items for purchase. There are several restaurants and a small grocery store with a deli within walking distance of the church.
This workshop is very popular and there is always a waiting list. Should you need to cancel, contact us immediately so we may work to fill your place from the waiting list. Tuition is refundable until June 1. After that date, your payment is refundable if we are able to fill you place from the waiting list.
Suzanne will offer three icons for this year’s workshop in addition to the Holy Face (shown here), a good one for introducing new students to this practice.
You can see the other icons at the bottom of this page:
Christ Emmanuel and Archangels
Archangel Gabriel
Three Marys
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.
If you live in the Richmond area and would like to continue working with icons after taking the workshop, please use this form to ask members of our icon guild for more information.
Icon of Christ Emmanuel and Archangels
Icon of Three Marys
Icon of Archangel Gabriel
