As an antidote to the cold greyness of these February days, why not visit the warmth and colour of the latest inspiring exhibition of paintings at the White Lion Street Gallery in Tenby?

The selected artists and craftspeople have been invited to bring some cheery work for this, the first exhibition of the gallery year. Filling the ground floor space are rich oil paintings and delicate watercolours, exuberant acrylics and exacting linocuts. 3D work comes in the extraordinary bird shapes of the Cardiff potter Barbara Lock, the female forms of ceramic artist Vivienne Albiston and fused glass work by Neil Croucher.

Many of the artists are from Pembrokeshire, many from surrounding counties and northern parts of Wales and some from further afield into England. Frequent visitors will be pleased to see new work by Penny Timmis, her popular flowers, cockerels and landscape paintings having been shown in the gallery for over 10 years now. Even longer-standing artists include Graham Hadlow, well-known traditional watercolourist and teacher of adult learners in the area and Peter Cronin, of the same ilk, from the Vale of Glamorgan, though now he also paints in oils.

There’s nothing traditional about Andie Clay’s work - it’s abstract, with bright shapes and subtle marks, and intriguing references to musicians’ repetitive movements or the solidity of stones. Dai David’s oils are all about the light, especially on water of the sea, of wetness on the beach and backlighting buildings and people, obscuring their features, but illuminating their outlines. Bert Evans’s oil paintings feature people: a couple of women, delighting in each other’s company, share a table, ignoring the scene beyond the window. In another work, a lone man pauses to look over the harbour wall.

Printmakers Ann Lewis from North Wales and Judith Stroud from Swansea limit their colour, but not their observation and imagination in representations of waterfalls and mountainsides, blustery beach walks, fishing and searching for treasure. Dorian Spencer Davies’s curvy outlined townscapes brighten any February day.

Pembrokeshire is depicted in gentle light in David Bellamy’s instantly recognisable watercolours with exciting skies. Another Pembrokeshire painter showing his work is Eden Evans. He also prefers to work outside in all weathers, making accurate tonal drawings of the scene before him, adding accents of colour. Jon Houser works similarly and exhibits his new work in soft rich colour. A fourth ‘plein air’ artist is Thomas Haskett, who uses a brighter palette for areas of north Pembrokeshire.

The paintings of Andrew Douglas-Forbes explore the subtle tonal qualities of his still lifes and landscapes. The set of four exquisite small paintings features abstracted aspects of Tenby Harbour life. A larger work brings the different textures of pottery bowls, eggs and Bramley apples to life.

A variety of subjects have been worked in batik by the Swansea expert in this field, Rhona Tooze. ,Unusually she tackles industrial subjects, this selection including the silhouetted pithead of Tower Colliery and Maesteg Street in Swansea amongst others of animals and land - and town - scapes. Jo Thomas, new to the gallery, brings children on the beach, playing in the shallows.

This exhibition provides a welcome artistic refuge from the high winds and low temperatures we’re enjoying, as well as the opportunity to buy top quality original work from professional artists.

The exhibition is open now at the White Lion Street Gallery in Tenby and continues until March 22. The gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, but closed on Sundays and Wednesdays. The exhibition can be viewed on the gallery website www.artmatters.org.uk