Icon Studio Verdonk

In the Icon Studio, Jan Verdonk, 35 years in profession, gives courses in icon painting. He works in a small country, the Netherlands, in Amsterdam and monasteries around. Take a look at the icon gallery, and do read the articles about icons.

The artwork can be shipped around the globe.

Here you can read about icons, painting technique and the Orthodox Church. There is also a photo gallery and the Studio's online course in Dutch, and in English for advanced.

Dutch courses are held untill now in monasteries during the summer. Courses in English will soon follow. You will learn the technique of traditional icon painting, which means using as few synthetic substances as possible and no ready-made factory paints but making your own tempera paint from no more than egg yolk, vinegar and pigment. This ancient painting technique guarantees the continuation of the icon tradition in its purest form and is a must for the Orthodox churches where icons are venerated. The lessons are accompanied by detailed introductions to church-, art- and world history as it relates to icons, Orthodox spirituality, knowledge of materials, anatomy, color theory and Byzantine music. The wooden board we are receiving is already prepared with chalk and glue, and we can soon apply the drawing to it. Then we gild it with gold leaf, and we can start painting the surfaces. In the class we will make a simple icon. Beginners and advanced students work side by side and receive individual guidance.

Those who cannot or do not want to paint weekly, but would like to be introduced to the technique, can opt for the short workshop.
For Jan Verdonk, his orthodoxy plays a major role in his painting. Icons are images of Christ, Mary, angels, saints and biblical scenes. They provide a glimpse into the mystical world, for the saints depicted live in eternal light.

 Curriculum Vitae

In 1971 I started to study theology studies at the University of Amsterdam and at the same time I took Drawing for elementary school because painting was my hobby. I graduated with major Ecclesiastical and dogmatic history of Byzantium and the early Middle Ages in Western Europe. My thesis was on the Union Council of Florence (1437-39), where all the dogmatic and ritual differences between Rome and Orthodoxy came to the surface. My book Schism is a result of this. My minor subject was Modern Greek, because I consider myself as half Greek.

Until 1987 I worked at the Institute for Dialectology, Folklore and Idiom.

Looking back: until 1990 I continued to paint all these 20 years, but the motivation regularly diminished. Then in Athens I met my teacher Neoklis Kolliopoulos, the most successful icon painter of his time, who took me in for a month. I became a professional on my return to Holland. In 1993 I became Orthodox in the church of Father Georgios Perris in Utrecht by name Ioannis. In the Orthodox Church in Amsterdam I became a chorister under Pandelis Voulgarakis in 2001 and after his death and a year of studying choral conducting I also became choirmaster and psaltis (cantor) in 2007.

In 1994 I participated at a group exhibition of the bulletin Eikonikon in Zuid-Scharwoude. In this way I then became familiar with Dutch icon painters and made exhibitions with them. From 1997-99 I took three “Orthodox workshops” in icon painting with Bernard Frinking, a student again of the painter-theologian L.Ouspensky of the “Paris school,” in order to learn Russian painting as well.

In 2001 I started the icon school with already 30 students. In a few years the number grew to 70, so that in the last 20 years there have been about 1000 students altogether. With them I made big exhibitions in Zuid-Scharwoude, Vianen, Utrecht and Rolduc, and solo exhibitions in Lochem, Amstelveen and Voorschoten. I receive recognition for my work in Russia, Greece and all over the world. On my website there are 30+ articles about icons. I am active on Facebook, see also my pages Online Icons School and Icon Studio Amsterdam.

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