Dublin-born Bernadette Madden studied painting at Ireland’s National College of Art and Design (NCAD). She works mainly in batik (wax resist on linen) and screenprint on paper.

She has had solo exhibitions internationally, and her work features in collections owned by the Arts Council, the National Museum of Ireland, and Trinity College Dublin, among others.

She has been a member of the NCAD board and of Ireland’s Cultural Relations Committee.

Marie Phelan was born in County Galway, has lived in the UK and now lives in County Wexford. She combines photography with painted backgrounds that draw out and enhance the characteristics of her home-grown flowers and plants. She has an Associate distinction from the Irish Photographic Federation, is a member of Wexford Camera Club and exhibits regularly in Wexford, for example during the opera festival and at the Wexford Arts Centre cafe. As an enthusiastic gardener she has her pick of subject material, and with an eye to future images, grows unusual and colourful plant varieties. Her painted backgrounds are achieved using watercolour and mixed media. While a background is ‘oozing and in a state of flux’, she judges the moment to place her flower or plant, and captures it with a macro lens.

Kevin McAleenan was born in Banbridge, County Down. He studied art at the University of Ulster and graduated in 1985. Kevin’s paintings – ‘a response to a way of life slowly fading in a changing Ireland’ – focus on creating striking colour relationships, which drift towards the abstract. His images are distilled into strong, interlocking colour blocks.