Introductory course, Icon painting school, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Our icon painting introductory course has come to the end. Although spring in Calgary has been cold and snowy this year, paradise hill landscapes, flowers and waves that we painted during the course brightened the refectory of All Saints Church. Though it is only the attempt to paint stylized scenery, the result also shows students’ change.

Some have learned how to hold a paintbrush and follow the rhythm of lines; the others started to see and understand the colours of a favourite icon or decided to continue doing pencil sketches. However, almost all students that have done the course felt the beauty of an icon. One of the students said that before the course when she looked at the icons she seemed not to understand their meaning and was afraid to gaze at them; but suddenly, somewhere in the middle of the course, she understood how beautiful the icons are.

During 14 lessons, the priest taught how much the icon is related to the Liturgy, what the devotional art aspects are and the way they are correlated; as well as what the difference between an icon and a painting is. He also told about the importance of an icon, the attitude to it in different periods of Orthodoxy existence and about the rebirth of the icon painting nowadays. The students also drew sketches, practiced working with the paintbrushes, found necessary colours. Despite the fact that there is a lot of information about the icon painting on the Internet, in practice, it is one’s own experience of mistakes, solutions and small victories. Nevertheless, the most important is that all of us not only looked, but also tried to feel the icon.

An icon gathers people around not only for a pray in churches or at home, but also for the common work, exchange of knowledge and spiritual experience. There are good reasons why icon painters come together and form workrooms, work in groups to paint the churches. Icon painting is a composite practice. That is why Alipy and Grigory  have become the patron saints of our school; they were companions not only in the monastic life of practice, but also in the icon painting one.

Our lesson became longer and longer, there were more and more questions. Many of the students understood that 15 classes could not include all knowledge of the icon. It was not our goal to graduate from the icon painting school; we wanted students to become familiar with this kind of devotional art, under the patronage of the Christian Orthodox Church.

In Calgary, more and more people are interested in icon painting. Some of them want to paint an icon for themselves, as being far away from home they have understood that faith is their single support; and it is not always possible to buy an indispensable icon, even a printed out copy. The others want to give a unique present for a baptism ceremony or a wedding service. Some people want to make a difference, as they see the needs of the Christian Orthodox Churches here.

There are and those, who do not belong to the Christian Orthodox Church, but found the beauty of the Christian Orthodox icon. For example, that is the 4^th year when the Catholic St. Mary’s University College runs the icon painting workshops. Every year they invite an icon painter who chooses a sample and a group of students paints an icon during a week or two. There are so many people willing to attend the classes that it is almost impossible to enroll.

Meanwhile, in our Christian Orthodox churches, we still can see printed out copies of icons. What is to be done? Sometimes there is no money for a church renovation; there are more newcomers among parishioners than those immigrants, who are already successful here. To order a professional icon painter an icon is expensive, even when ordering it, it takes almost a year, as an icon painter is busy. That is not Russia, where in a small church shop one can offer you not only a cheap printed out copy of an icon, but also several hand painted icons. That is why people try to paint, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

This is an introductory course, an attempt to bring people of different talents to the understanding of an icon in the church, not out of it: to unite them in their common intention to contribute to the service of God and the Church.

The result of this course does not lie in good or not so good performance of different tasks; it lies in systematization of those details that people try to gather from different sources; and the priest leads this process.

Someone will stop considering an icon to be a charm or talisman, someone will discover the beauty of an icon, and someone will refuse to paint icons, realizing that it is not their way to God. Nevertheless, there are those who will embark on a path of icon painting for the Church and people.