I had a really good time with year three on Wednesday afternoon running a rather belated session on icon painting: it was origianlly supposed to be a part of their Lent Project.
I started putting the gold leaf on an Icon of St. Oswald which, when finished, will be given to school. I also demonstrated how to separate an egg and remove the yolk sac in order to mix egg tempera paint. I also showed some of my pigments, some of which are poisonous! The children really noticed the depth of colour in the pigments – they are very beautiful to look at.
After all this year three had a go at painting their own icons: some painted over a printed icon, some traced icons and then transferred the image to a board before painting the image, and some painted freehand. I asked them to do this quietly and prayerfully and was surprised by how quiet they managed to keep. Of course, they used their usual poster paints for safety!
Here are some of the icons that the children painted – some of them are not yet finished!
