Curriculum

Xenia Pokrovsky, founder of Izograph Studio, provides training in icon painting that is immediate, practicable and of the highest quality available on the American continents in terms of comprehensiveness, authenticity and faithfulness to the craft. Widely known as a teacher of teachers, by the time she left Russia in 1991, Pokrovsky had trained hundreds of students, many of whom are now master iconographers in her homeland.

Six Days of Creation workshops are a unique opportunity to work closely with this great teacher who attracts students of the icon from around the world.

Both novice and those who have acquired reputations as professional iconographers and teachers will welcome the depth of instruction Pokrovsky offers from her four decades of experience as restorer of 15th and 16th century icons and author of new icons.

Students receive intensive instruction in the art and language of the icon from the perspective Orthodox Church iconography established in the ancient technique of egg-tempera and palette of gold, semi-precious stones and refined clays.

Instruction includes:

• Wood panel preparation
• Adhearing linen to board with animal-hide glue
• Making a marble & chalk base artistís gesso
• Selecting a prototype and making a drawing
• Transfering drawing to the board
• Egg-tempera medium preparation
• Grinding natural pigments to make paint
• Applying basecoat color (roskrish)
• Lighting the figure
• Applying highlight finishes
• Calligraphic inscriptions
• Applying assiste and gold leaf
• Varnishing of the icon