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About the Painting Icons Workshop Retreat course

This course offers a practical way into iconography by engaging with some of the skills that go towards the painting of a panel icon. While the painting of icons is part of a creative tradition taking years to learn, what is on offer here gives some insights into the heart of iconography.

The primary focus over the weekend will be the drawing and painting of a single figure, in monochrome, using egg tempera on watercolour paper. For this, there will be practical tuition in a number of areas including observational analysis of an icon, the making and use of egg tempera, and the building up of painted layers towards a final image. No previous experience is required.

Interspersed within the practice of drawing and painting will be short talks and discussions on some specific underlying principles in operation when making an icon. For example, we will consider the nature of divine light and the way in which human beings may participate in this light, while throughout referencing exemplary icons past and present.

If you have ever wanted to learn the art of painting icons, this workshop retreat will offer a hands-on opportunity to get an introduction to the concepts and practice through a guided exercise in creating your own monochrome version by the end of the third day. Come and join in!

Materials are included in the course price

About the course leader
Dr Jim Blackstone is a full time liturgical artist working as part of the Chichester Workshop for Liturgical Art. He has recently produced commissioned work for St Davids Cathedral (panel icon) and Chichester Cathedral (mosaic). He regularly teaches a group in Bethlehem.

Prior to working as an iconographer, Jim worked in a residential social setting with emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children; as a portrait painter; in a contemplative monastic community; as a teacher in London secondary schools (at St Dunstan’s College in Catford and at St Paul’s School in Barnes); in university lay chaplaincy (at Clare College, Cambridge); and as an ordained minister in the Church of England (in the Dioceses of Southwark and London), among other things. He has also published research on medieval Greek theology.

Details

Dates & Times

04 - 06 Oct 2024

Begins 6pm Friday, ends after lunch at 2pm Sunday

Other Notes

This is a weekend course with the option to participate residentially.

Residential ticket options include bed and breakfast, lunch, dinner and refreshments.

What our students say

PhD Research Programmes

Visual Artist Claire Reed

The complex and sometimes fractious relationship between contemporary art and religion has intrigued me throughout my art career, informing my direction as an artist. It has led me to work in sacred spaces with their immediate and wider communities, to study an MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture at Sarum College, and recently to become artist–researcher at Leo Baeck College of Jewish scholarship and learning.

My aim is to examine the extent to which this creative approach might generate fruitful inter-religious theological insights within a Jewish and Christian ministry training context.

Sarum College combines an open-minded embrace of the imagination and the arts with a supportive, questioning and diverse community. Crucially for me, the Sarum-Winchester PhD programme is one of the very few UK university programmes to offer a hybrid thesis in art and theology in which the creative process and resulting art output along with a written critical component are presented for examination.

This PhD research is a key part of my development as an artist engaged with theology and inter-religious dialogue.

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Stimulating and Challenging

What is Successful Ageing? led by James Woodward

I enjoyed the course immensely from beginning to end – the seamless interweaving of knowledge, ideas and research and the linking with belief and faith.

The content was stimulating, challenging, thought provoking and I was greatly appreciative of the contributions and questions from other participants, your considered and sensitive responses and integration with your presentations.

Thank you!

Netflix, Theology and Pastoral Practice

Peter Butchers on his MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture student experience

How do cultural tropes, like those found in Black Mirror, help bridge the gap between what academic theology espouses and what the everyday Christian believes? In his research as a student on the MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture, Peter Butchers explored platonic philosophy, digital theology and eschatology, and pastoral practice around death and dying.

Rewarding Sabbatical Stay

The Revd Greg Syler, is Rector of Ascension & St. George’s, Resurrection Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC USA, spent part of his ministry sabbatical at Sarum College in spring 2022.

His account of the experience begins: ‘I loved spending nearly three weeks of my ministry sabbatical at Sarum College earlier this year.

Not only did I rest, and rest well in the comfortable care of the Sarum College staff, I experienced very significant renewal and fresh insights.’

The Road Not Taken

Sarum Graduate Mike Truman

January 2022

Five years ago, I told my Warden of Readers that I would not be renewing my licence when it expired in 2019, as I thought my faith was becoming too unorthodox for a Church of England licensed lay minister. As someone who knew me well, she challenged me to actively explore what I did still believe. Thus started the journey that ended last August with the dissertation completing my MA in Theology Imagination and Culture (MATIC) at Sarum College.

Clergy Study Breaks

The opportunity for clergy to get away occasionally from their own context, to have an overnight stay in the beautiful setting of Sarum College and all that the Salisbury Cathedral Close offers is hugely valuable. All the clergy I have suggested who have spent 24hrs at Sarum College have benefit greatly from the experienced mentoring where they can talk, reflect, think, plan and pray.

The support and encouragement they receive is excellent and has a positive on their on going ministry. This is something the Diocese of Rochester encourages and supports financially in preparation for their clergy preparing for Extended Ministerial Development Leave (Sabbatical).

— Canon Christopher Dench, Diocese of Rochester Director of Formation and Ministry

Retreats and Private Stays

When I arrived, exhausted and sensitive, I was grateful not to be asked by Reception were I came from, whether I had had a good journey etc. That was the kind of hospitality I needed: a non-intrusive welcome that was found in ancient cultures and still survives in some societies today, where the host asks questions about a stranger and his journey only when the visitor has rested and been given food and drink.

— guest on a private stay

Biblical Study Breaks

I just found it very refreshing – as a leader of a church I don’t get as many opportunities to step out and do courses (my fault, not the church!) and so I loved it. I think it was run really well online – which is a difficult medium to work with.

Pádraig Ó Tuama (pictured) was outstanding in his balance of getting us to engage and sharing his learning. Also the quick availability of resources provided by Sarum College Librarian Jayne Downey was excellent.

— course participant, Story Theology: Narrative Approaches to Scripture

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Painting Icons Workshop Retreat

About the Painting Icons Workshop Retreat course