“The fresco process of Araash originates from Rajasthan in India and is built up from layers of slaked lime and ground marble. It is a centuries old technique which does not in itself have any particular sanctified role or significance other than that which the artist may take the personal decision to impart to it. For me it holds a sense of magic and sensuality.

“Colour is a central theme of my work and important to the technique of Araash. Arrash enables pigment to be built into its surface, so that colour becomes integral - dense solid matter with a depth and purity.

“Drawing is an integral part of the process as well, however simple the image or mark made. The image is beaten into the wet fresco ground, so working in this way the drawn image needs to be literally ‘constructed’. This necessarily involves the elimination and paring down of details which are ephemeral or superfluous, the more minimal the image, the more crucial the drawing and definition of that shape becomes.

“This attempt to take control and create some sense of order, is part of the same rationale which intimates a thought pattern that is not restricted to one’s work alone, but that follows through every aspect of life; it is an attempted process of refinement.”

Muirne Kate Dineen