A fresco is a mural painting process in which a painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The technique most frequently associated to fresco painting is “buon” or “true fresco,” where the colours, which are made by grinding dry-powder pigments in pure water, dry and set with the plaster to become a permanent part of the wall. The "true fresco" process is done in three successive coats of specially prepared plaster, sand, and marble dust in order to ensure that the colours are embedded into the surface, and as the wall dries and sets, the pigment particles become bound or cemented along with the lime and sand particles. The earliest known fresco to archaeologists come 2000 BCE during the Bronze Age of Crete, and while very few Ancient Greek and Roman frescos survive today, the ones that do serve a valuable source of historic documentation about the everyday lives of the ancients. Over the years artists developed two other variants of fresco, “secco fresco” which is painted onto dry plaster requiring a binding medium such as glue, oil or egg tempera for the painting to penetrate, and “mezzo fresco” which is painted onto almost but not completely dry plaster, allowing the dampness of the plaster to act as a binding medium. While the colours do not penetrate into the plaster in these two more contemporary fresco versions they are useful for detailed painting and for retouching true fresco.



This fall, our high school students were provided with a unique opportunity as they created their very own mini fresco! After mixing and pouring plaster onto a flat surface, students used Emily Carr's body of work as a source of inspiration to create a fall landscape painting in the form of dry fresco. We're excited to see this process through and share their work-in-progress below!