Edinburgh School of Icon Painting

General information

Edinburgh School of Icon Painting was founded in September 2013. It is a small school based in the artist hub St. Margaret's House. The school mission is to teach icon painting (writing) to people of all different backgrounds but at the same time maintaining the ethos and essence of it's spirituality. Introducing this unique form of art to students of the school I introduce a way of practising art which is different the other forms of art and it is said to be more then just art.
Students learn egg tempera technique which has been used in art for centuries and it is one of the most lasting painting technique. There are still reasonably well preserved icons from VI Century.
Egg tempera involved preparing own paints using egg yolk and dry pigments. Through the whole process of work we try to limit synthetic materials. Using organic materials helps to develop a connection with nature and in consequence with the Divine.

Basia Mindewicz - founder and teacher. Born in 1978.
Graduated from The Maria Grzegorzewska Academy of Special Education, MA and College of Iconography (Policealne Studium Ikonograficzne) in Bielsk Podlaski in 2008.
She has been working for a major icon painting workshops in Poland. Organized many private workshops and residential courses.
Workshops in Poland:
Droga Ikony (The way of Icon) http://www.drogaikony.org.pl/
Studium Chrzescijanskiego Wschodu (School of Eastern Christianity)

Workshops organized or co-organized by other organizations in UK
Retreat at Craig Lodge Family House of Prayer, may 2015.
3 day workshop at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, march 2016
''Art of Icon. Art of life'' retreat at Hacienda Los Olivos in Spain, may 2016. http://www.haciendalosolivos.org/

Member of British Association of Iconographers.

She has taken part in many group exhibitions in Poland and Scotland. She curated few.
Most important shows:
"Icon Today" Contemporary Icon (Ikona Dzis, Wystawa Ikon Wspolczesnych), Exhibition was a part of the Conference under the same title 6.06-31.07.2008 at the Monastery of Dominicans in Warsaw, Poland
"Oblicza Ikony" Ukrainian and Polish Contemporary Icon, The Museum Of South Podlasie in Biala Podlaska, Poland, 11.09-30.11.2011
''The Sacred Face'', March 2014, as a part of MESP Festival. Edinburgh. Curated.
''Doorways to the Divine'', January 2015. St. Margaret's House. Edinburgh. Curated.
''Artist as a Seer in a quantum age'', march 2015. MESP Festival. Summer Hall. Edinburgh. Curated.