Icons and Altarpieces

Schedule: TBD
Hours of Instruction: 30 hours credit towards the Certificate in Sacred Art
Location: M200, St. Mary’s University, 14500 Bannister Road, Calgary
Tuition: $600 tuition and $75 supply fee, plus GST

Icons and Altarpieces, a five day gilding and tempera painting master class has been scheduled with English professional gilder and iconographer Peter Murphy, a noted teacher and member of The British Association of Iconographers. Using details from two masterpieces of 13th century Italo/Byzantine panel painting, the Kahn and Mellon Madonna’s from The National Gallery of Art in Washington as prototypes, course participants will learn to use the tools, techniques and materials of the medieval studio. This will include the laying and burnishing of real 24 ct gold leaf over clay bole on a gessoed wooden panel. Students will then learn how to decorate the gilding, by incising, stamping and tooling areas such as the halo’s and borders.

After gilding, students will be taught how to make and use traditional egg tempera paint, using natural pigments and free range egg yolks in the manner of medieval Byzantine and Italian workshops. Special attention will be given to the correct under painting and modelling of faces and hands.

The final technique to be taught will be how to finish the painting with real gold leaf highlights over the tempera, using assist, or mordant gilding.

Icons and Altarpieces instructor Peter Murphy is a well know English professional gilder and iconographer. Peter has been commissioned by a number of churches in the UK, notably Tewkesbury Abbey and the Church of St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol. In 2007, he painted twelve images for a new shrine to St. Ethelbert, king and martyr, in Hereford Cathedral, where the saint is buried. In 2013, Peter Murphy founded the St. Peter’s Centre for Sacred Art in the medieval church of St Peter’s in Canterbury England to teach traditional Byzantine and Early Italian painting techniques. To see some examples of work and some reviews of recent tempera and gilding courses tutored by Peter.

Please have a look at his website, http://www.petermurphyicons.co.uk/ or the website of The St Peter’s Centre for Sacred Art in Canterbury, http://peterscourses.artweb.com/ or go to the website of the British Association of Iconographers, http://www.bai.org.uk/, for the review of a gilding day in with Peter in London.Additional requirements

The gessoed panel, pigments, and gold leaf will be supplied. Students are requested to bring their own fine brushes and palette dishes. Details will be emailed upon registration.
Tuition is due at the time of registration. Students may cancel their registration and receive a refund (minus a $50 administration fee) up to 7 days prior to the beginning of the course. After this date, no refunds are given for cancellation. Enrolment in this course is limited so please register early. Registrations will be processed on a first come, first served basis until the course is full.

To register for this course, contact Patti Berg at (403) 254-3751 or patti.berg@stmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:
Elizabeth Cressman, Continuing Education Coordinator
Email: elizabeth.cressman@stmu.ca