Ita Freeney: Water’s Edge art inspired by her views in East Cork

The Cork art stalwart also recalls painting adverts on buses with her dad

Ita Freeney pictured at the opening of her exhibition Water’s Edge at the Custom House Studios Gallery in Westport.  Picture: Conor McKeown

Ita Freeney’s work is known for its Zen-like stillness. A lover of the great outdoors, her new exhibition at the Custom House Gallery in Westport, Co Mayo features a body of paintings inspired by walks near her home in East Cork and Ballycastle, Co Mayo, where she has been a regular visitor.

“I’ve called the exhibition Water’s Edge. Our house in Glounthane overlooks the estuary of the River Lee, so that’s been an obvious influence,” she says. “This particular series of paintings is very much about the boundary between land and water. I don't know what fascinates me so much about that. I think it's just a contrast between the hardness of the land - and manmade structures like the piers - and the openness and airiness of the water and sky.