Songs of the Sea exhibition opens at Roe Valley Centre

A new art exhibition inspired by the stunning seascapes and coastline of Inishowen has opened at Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre in Limavady.

Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Councillor Richard Holmes, pictured at the new art exhibition Songs of the Sea by internationally acclaimed artist Rikki-Louise van den Berg at Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre in Limavady

Songs of the Sea by internationally acclaimed artist Rikki-Louise van den Berg explores the dialogue between artist, land and coast in the beautiful surroundings of Donegal.

The exhibition spans two galleries, featuring a collection of new works from 2021, with a range of small and large pieces reflecting Rikki’s explorative walks along the shore.

Originally from Holland, Rikki spent her formative years in Ireland and returned to these shores in 1997 to establish herself as a figurative and abstract painter, embarking on a personal journey in search of identity and place.

Explaining her inspiration, Rikki said: “My work is an inner-response to my outside world, my surroundings, to nature; it’s vulnerable beauty, colours, movement, contrasts, it’s fleeting moments of timelessness.

“I work intuitively, and I welcome the tempestuous, the surprise and unexpected beauty in a stroke, movement or colour.

“To me the essence of painting lies in the process, the learning, mark making, the discovery. It’s about expressing what I feel. During the painting process I can build, destroy, uncover, paint over, wash and scrape, apply layers of paint by knife or hands or even sometimes from a distance. An intriguing conversation between me and the canvas, mirroring perhaps the acts of nature on the landscape.”