UK-born artist Mary Fuller, who has been living in the Burren for the past 14 years, decided to pursue her passion for art in her 70s, after she had moved to Ireland from Wales.

In 2017, at the age of 80, she received a BA in Fine Art from the GMIT, now ATU Galway, having studied on the part-time course there for six years.

And now, the Kinvara Area Visual Arts Group (KAVA) is hosting a retrospective of 88-year-old Mary’s work in the local courthouse gallery.

Although she had no formal training in art until she was her 70s, Mary, who lived in Switzerland until she was 19, did have a crafts background.

In her early career, she served a two-year apprenticeship as a woodcarver and she then went on to teach woodcarving to students at Emerson College, in Sussex.

She also worked as a toymaker for her parents’ business and for 15 years ran her own small company, making toys and hand-carved wooden puppets.

Mary has also had a long-held passion for ceramics and has created many unique, hand-made pieces over the years, which have been bought by private collectors.

Friends, family, fellow-artists and member of the local community gathered at the Courthouse on Sunday, where Dr Áine Phillips of the Burren College of Art formally opened this retrospective exhibition of painting and ceramics.

Áine praised Mary’s sharp focus, stating that her paintings revealed “hidden and buried layers of meaning and experience.

“Like the Rosetta Stone, they decode and translate ancient knowledge and feeling for us at a time in the world where we need, more than ever, insight and enlightenment from the ancients and our wise elders”.

Mary has previously exhibited her work in the group show, KRF Notebook Project 2 at the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, County Kildare, in 2012, and a graduate show, 13 at The Courthouse, Kinvara in 2018.

■ People can immerse themselves in the wisdom and beauty of her work in this show, Mary Fuller: Paintings and Ceramics, which runs in the Courthouse, Kinvara, until this Saturday evening. Daily opening hours are from 11am-5pm. All welcome.

Pictured: Mary Fuller and Dr Áine Phillips at the opening.