AN exciting exhibition opened this week at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, with the title 'Land Meets Sea'. This is a one-woman show by well-known artist Andrea Kelland from Amroth.

Andrea's work is almost entirely concerned with the Pembrokeshire coast: an immense source of material. Having selected a subject, she'll strive to retain its own poetry or drama in the painting. She will paint the grand and eroding cliffs, the headlands pounded and shaped by seas, wave-shaped bays, rocky caves, pools and tide lines.

Andrea Kelland gained her degree in painting at Kingston School of Art and lived and worked in Devon until 1988 when she moved to West Wales to resume painting. Since then, she has exhibited widely across South and West Wales with many solo shows and in groups. As a member of the Watercolour Society of Wales, she regularly exhibits with them also.

She held her first exhibition in 1992 at the Taliesin Arts Centre in Swansea and later a major exhibition called 'Above and Below' went on to tour Wales supported by the Arts Council of Wales. Meanwhile, she has exhibited widely with many solo shows and in-group exhibitions.

Since moving to Pembrokeshire, Andrea has been painting the wonderful coast, at all times of the year. The dramatic shapes caused by erosion, huge grand crumbling cliffs, wide sweeps of the water's edge, but also the reflections, tide lines, movements on water, are what interest her. There is such a wealth of material.

Of her working methods, Andrea said: "I rarely work in-situ, but tend to make colour sketches and drawings, then backed by photography. I then work from all these back in the studio, developing ideas from my knowledge, understanding of place, and from all my supporting source-material.

"In my watercolours, I draw directly with the brush and lay on washes as appropriate, building up colours to the richness I want; and I rarely use pencil on them. Often, I'll make several versions of the subject, re-arranging the underlaying structure to acquire a compelling aesthetic meaning. This is a contemplative development, while all the time striving to attain the poetry of the place, or the essence of the reason I was first attracted to the subject."

'Land Meets Sea' continues at the museum's New Art Gallery until November 22. The museum is open for seven days a week from 10 am to 5 pm (last admission 4.30 pm). Andrea is holding a special 'Meet the Artist' day in the gallery between 10 am and 2 pm on Tuesday, November 12. All are welcome.