Master icon maker and art histrian, Marina Forbes, will offer "The Art of Icon Painting"  workshop at the Christ Church (6 Dane Street, Kennebunk, ME 04043) in Kennebunk, ME. It is a 16-hour hands-on studio course for students interested in learning how to create traditional icons, one of the world's oldest and most respected forms of religious art. The class will meet on 4 (four) Saturdays from 10am to 2pm: June 18 and June 25, July 9 and July 16. The program will include a detailed discussion and demonstration of traditional materials and methods of icon making. Then, under the direction of the instructor, students will create their own icons using a combination of traditional and contemporary materials and methods. Students will learn about board and painting surface preparation, gessoing, image rendering, pigments, brush strokes techniques, detailing, highlighting, gilding, Old Slavonic lettering, and varnishing. No painting experience is required for this Icon Painting class. Experienced artists will also feel very comfortable in this workshop.

For more information or pre-register please contact Marina Forbes directly at (603) 332-2255, by e-mail at marina@marinaforbes.com.

The Icon of "Mother Of God of Vladimir" (wood, egg tempera, 23-k gold) is by Marina Forbes.

The cost of the workshop is $399 + art materials (please see the list below).

I normally have between 3 and 7 students in my class.
I still have some room available so if you know anyone who might be interested in my workshops please tell them that they are welcome!

If you are interested please let me know! If you are planning to participate in this course, please respond to this e-mail or give me a call at (603) 332-2255 to confirm that you will be attending.

I would also love to talk to you prior to my class. Please let me know what is your phone number and the best time to reach you by phone.

As inspirational reference materials we will be using unique icons survived from the first half of the 6th century from The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai, which is the oldest active Eastern Orthodox monastery in the world, renowned for its extraordinary holdings of Byzantine art.

If you are interested to continue your hands-on painting spiritual journey, this workshop could be followed by the Icon Painting II class and we will be referencing the image of Salus Populi Romani (Protectress, or more literally health or salvation, of the Roman People). It is a Byzantine icon which is kept in the Pauline  Chapel of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Italy.

The image has been venerated by several Popes and acted as a Roman Catholic Mariological symbol, for the city of Rome and its peoples.

•  Pope Gregory I in 593 had the icon carried throughout Rome during the Easter festivals and prayed for an end to a plague at that time.
• Pope Gregory XVI also venerated the image in 1837 to pray for the end of the cholera epidemic. 
• Pope Francis in 2020 used the icon during an extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing to pray for an end to the Covid-19 pandemic.