About the workshop

The workshop aims to provide the first technical bases for the painting of icons with materials as much as possible corresponding to those of the historical tradition and to follow, the technical bases of drawing and drawing from life, pillars of visual perception and of the translation of it into expression.

Attention will be focused on the subject of the "face", the central theme of the ancient icons that retains great relevance in the investigation proposal that we will face: in fact, the Face is the pivot of each person's sensitive perceptive experience. We will paint, with the technique and materials of tradition, an image starting from the model of an ancient icon chosen among the classic ones proposed to the students. An anchorage to the past for a current passage that will lead us, after observing reality through the instrument of sign and drawing, to the creation of a portrait. A face, even self-portrait, that is made by a very young author.

* Results of a workshop in Montesanvito, Italy - March 2019 - 3rd Class of Primary School and 1st Secondary School

The practical part will always be preceded by a short and playful theoretical part. We will briefly talk about the history of icons, the role they played in the historical context in which they developed, with particular attention to the concepts that underlie their creation. The icon can play an important role in triggering and developing the creative process of individuals immersed in contemporary life, especially in the observation and analysis of the signs and significant parts, letters of an alphabet that speak of beauty. We will talk about points and lines (basic elements of the design) and how they can be used in a free and individual way to represent one's vision of reality, one's imagination, finally we will observe the face and face, a first approach to meeting with one's uniqueness.

The materials used are natural and the procedure through which they are produced is simple and allows you to be treated with even small children, opening up the possibility of an understanding and immediate contact with the elements of nature and their direct use. The pigments, the cotton canvas, the plaster, the glue, the wood, the gold, the egg have a direct reference to natural elements, sometimes even very close to the environment in which you live. Each ingredient used in the construction of the icon, can give rise to a short journey in chemistry, biology, basic craftsmanship activities (phlegnamery, textiles ...) and in their history; in this sense, the icon is a vehicle that opens up to the child a world made not of pre-packaged cans of unidentifiable materials to buy, but of plants, metals, minerals, organic elements that can be known first of all as something that exists in nature and that then, through understandable procedures, they become the necessary ingredients to create an artifact, an object through which you can express yourself.