The Way of Beauty Atelier

For beginners and advanced artists alike, this program offers traditional courses in cosmic order, creativity, and inspiration. Here you will learn about Catholic traditions in art as well as the theological principles behind them. You will learn about the principles of harmony and proportion that are infused in the work of the old Masters, how they developed their creativity, and the ways in which they followed inspiration. The course also draws heavily upon the writings of the Church Fathers and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Your teachers, who consist of professionally trained working Catholic artists, will teach you simple, traditional plainchant and how to combine the prayers found in Mass and the Divine Office with visual imagery. The program also features guided trips to the Museum of Russian Icons as well as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Previous training in art is not required for any Way of Beauty course.

This two week course is based heavily upon the methods developed in the High Renaissance and used in the first Academy of the Caracci Brothers of Bologna in 1600. These methods continue to be taught in the leading ateliers in Florence, Italy. In this course, you will learn the skills of observation and control in drawing as well as the stylistic elements that characterize the Baroque of the 17th century – one of the three figurative traditions referred to by Pope Benedict XVI as authentically Catholic and liturgical in form. This instruction will link, in simple understandable terms, the elements of style to the theology and philosophy of the Catholic worldview.By the end of this course, you will have produced a single, meticulously finished charcoal drawing on paper and will be instructed on how to adapt the studio-based methods you learn to other forms, such as landscape.

In this two week course, you will learn skills of drawing and painting in the iconographic tradition, commonly associated with the Eastern Church (although it is also deeply engrained in the Western Church tradition as well). As with the Naturalistic Drawing in the Academic Method Course, this course will link the stylistic elements of the iconographic tradition with the theology and philosophy of the Church that forms them.You will be instructed in the drawing of icons, how to transfer the drawing to a panel, and will learn the entire iconographic painting process, including the making of the paint with pigment and egg yolk. You will also learn how icons promote prayer.