TOMORROW (Saturday) sees the opening of an exhibition of paintings by Eamon Colman, called Salt River, at the Oriel Queen's Hall Gallery, High Street, Narberth. The act of walking and journeying holds the key to Colman's work. Whether following the course of an Irish river, the coastline of Denmark or the route of the Ganges in Calcutta, his search for a way of taking the local history and responding visually has always been the same. Through the exploration of a given landscape and the people who populate it, he discovers a story to tell. At the source of all his work is the story. Following on from the physical journey comes the artist's exploration of space and form on a canvas. This moves away from representation to abstraction, creating a unique visual language which hovers between reality and the imagination. Yet the overriding element of Colman's paintings is colour. This, for him, reflects the mood of a landscape. Sometimes, as with the Irish landscape, it can be incidental. A small flower or a piece of driftwood can determine the colour of the whole painting. Strong colour with slight pigment changes are used to create the mood of a place. The colour is also a way of looking at that magic realism in a painting - its otherness. In 1989, on a travel award given by the Calcutta Artist Union, Colman walked to the source of the River Ganges. In 1994, he travelled for three months white water rafting through the Colorado and Buffalo Rivers in North America. Works made in response to these travels culminated in Home of the Snake King in Dublin. Eamon Colman was born in Dublin in 1957. Now living in Co Kilkenny, he has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. He was chairperson of the Artists' Association of Ireland, a board member of the Sculptors' Society of Ireland and, most recently, president of the European Council of Artists. The exhibition runs until July 23. For more information, telephone (01834) 869454, email [email protected]">[email protected] or visit the website http://www.orielqueenshallgallery.org.uk">www.orielqueenshallgallery.org.uk