Occoquan Artist Breathes New Life Into Religious Icons

Before Alice LaBier adds the last touches of gold to a halo in one of her hand-painted icons, she breathes on the clay base of the halo, causing it to warm and soften, so that the gold adheres properly.

For Alice, this act is full of both artistic and religious symbolism. The breath, or spirit, is what binds the components of the icon together and gives it life and beauty. Without this touch, the icon is merely colors on a board.

“I’ve seen five people sit down and do the same icon, and not one of them turns out alike,” she said. “It’s something that comes from within. There’s a real joy in doing them. There really is.”

These moments in the creation of an icon measuring at about nine by 12.5 inches are only part of over 72 hours of work.

Alice paints her icons in the Russian Byzantine style. She buys the boards already gessoed and picks a prototype, also known as a cartoon, to work from. This might be an old painting from the 15th or 16th century. Then she traces the design onto tracing paper, photocopies it, and uses graphite paper to trace it onto the board. Then she etches the design into the board. She creates the halo first, using a clay mixture as the base, and then adding the gold. Then she paints the robes. Finally, she paints the face. The eyes are the last thing to be added.

“When you put the eyes in, it kind of comes alive,” she said. “It never pays to be in a hurry because you mess up.”

It’s in details like the face and the hands that the artist adds their spark of individuality, even when working from a painting centuries old. The Russian icons often had serious faces and very long fingers.

“If you look at the Russian icons, those figures are very stern looking,” Alice said. “I think we as westerners are obsessed with perfection. We want to make them look gentler and kinder, and also more accurate. I think these older artists were more concerned with telling a story.”

Part of those stories include symbolic color choices.

“You really don't need a whole lot of experience to paint an icon,” she said. “It's not as difficult as it seems, because everything is spelled out for you. It's not like paint by numbers, but the guessing is taken away from you. You don't have to imagine.”

There are certain colors recommended for Jesus and the Trinity, for example, and certain color combinations that tend to work well. But the individual may choose the shade they want to work in.

Alice has painted icons since about 2005, when her friend Esther Turcotte suggested that they try taking icon painting classes at a monastery in upstate New York. She has gone nearly every year since.

It was not her first foray into art: she had been a watercolorist since 1975, and described her family as being creative and artistic.

The monastery lies in a wooded area in Wappinger Falls.

“You go into their chapel and you look out the window and you might see some deer in the woods,” she said. “That place is surrounded by woods. If you were catholic, they've got the stations of the cross that you can walk down a path in the woods.”

Students visiting the icon retreat workshop are provided with a private room, bathroom, meals, and painting supplies.

“All you do is bring your clothes for $750 a week,” Alice said. “That’s my vacation.”

The days are mostly spent painting in silence, until about 4 p.m., when the students naturally begin to open up. During the morning and early afternoon, only the instructor speaks.

She’s made friends with many of the other workshop attendees, many of whom travel to the monastery every summer.

The monastery reminds Alice of her childhood summers at a convent in Maine.

“My cousin and I, we’d always get in trouble because on Saturday, we’d try to skip religion class, and we’d go and hide under the beds in the dorm,” she recalled. “The Mother Superior said she was going to take me under her wing, and have me clean her room. Well, she’d give me prayer cards and candy all the time, so it wasn’t really a punishment.”

Her visits to the monastery have sparked a deeper spiritual connection to her art. She now uses her art as a sort of ministry.

“There was a person that I knew, not real well, who was not a believer in anything--didn’t have anything good to say about religion,” she said. “He had cancer of the kidney and he was having a really hard time. He was on a waiting list and things weren’t looking too good. I sent down an icon with his wife, saying, ‘He’ll probably throw it at me the next time he sees me.’ Well, he ended up getting the kidney and he said to me later, he said, ‘You know, don’t tell my wife this, but every time I pass it, I blow it a kiss.’”

She often frames 5x7 prints of her rendition of Michael and gives them to people who are ill.

“He’s a healer,” she explained. Michael is her favorite icon. “I had a friend of mine who had pancreatic cancer. She was a true christian but she didn't wear it on her lapels. I had given her a Michael. She ended up dying, but she used to look at it every morning. A year later, I was at the Arts Alive Show and her husband came by with her daughter. He said, ‘You know, I wake up looking at him every morning, too.’ He'd kept it there.”

Alice sells many of her paintings just above cost. In addition to her originals, she also makes prints, magnets, bookmarks, note cards, and smaller icon candle-stands. These candle-stands often go to the elderly or to the ailing relative of the customer. Alice provides a battery-powered candle so that the glow can illuminate the icon at all hours of the day and night.

Esther, who has known Alice for 17 years, noted that Alice combines savvy business sense, artistic creativity, and a caring heart in her artwork. She recalled the many walks that she and Alice took together.

“It was very therapeutic to be able to share our problems and bounce things off each other,” she said. “That was a very enjoyable time. She comes up with all sorts of creative ways of using her artwork. She is very gifted and shares her knowledge freely with others.”

Selling her originals is like selling her babies, Alice said. So far she has sold four 11x14 icons. The first icon she sold was the Trinity, bought by a rector in The Plains at an art show. The second one was Unexpected Joy, a depiction of the Madonna and Child, an icon that remains one of her most popular.

In 2000, she joined Prince William Art Society. She currently serves as the society’s treasurer.

PWAS publicity chairperson Madelyn Winslow first met Alice at a Christmas Show that PWAS held in Manassas, at the old courthouse.

“She came over and introduced herself,” Madelyn said. “That’s how I met her, and ever since then, she’s been involved, up to her eyeballs. We’ve become very close friends.”

Alice served as treasurer for two years before becoming president in 2007. She now serves once more as treasurer. 

“Alice is very thorough,” Madelyn said. “She’s a perfectionist. The art society never looked as professional as it does now. She’s gotten a lot of work done. For instance, the scholarships that we give: she began that.”

Since stopping her group art classes, life has been a little quieter for Alice. She’d conducted the classes for about five years with no charge beyond the cost of the supplies. But she still feels a drive to share her art with others.

“If you want to get religious, I had been blessed with these talents, and I wanted to share them,” Alice said.  “I’m not a preaching Christian, if you know what I mean, but I very much believe.”

To contact Alice LaBier or learn more about the Prince William Art Society, visit Alice’s page on the website.