THE opening of Paul Butler’s latest exhibition was held at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery on Friday evening and the guests were able to enjoy the large number of paintings and drawings, both colourful and sombre, that so give the essence of Tenby.

Dr. Tom Camps, who introduced Paul at the opening, reminded us all that Tenby is not just a collection of sea, land and sky, but a whole sense of place, so ably captured in Paul Butler’s paintings.

Paul spent several weeks over a period of two years working as artist in residence at the museum and has strong family connections with Tenby and Penally.

Dr. Camps noted that the exhibition’s title drew attention to the location of Tenby at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, with nothing but cold sea until reaching America.

He continued that Tenby is a place of change and danger, of the fleeting and the permanent, the changing figures in the landscape, the implacable, ever present gulls, the evocation of memory and happy ghosts.

Paul Butler continued the theme of memory as he described his holidays in the town and his grandmother visiting the harbour with his sister Helly, whose recollections are included in the exhibition catalogue with other essays.

Paul and Dr. Camps, who have known each other for many, many years, also recalled envy of a pedal car... or was it a tricycle? Memory is both transient and fixed.

Paul’s paintings invite us to make our own memories and stories and Tenby becomes a metaphor for the wider experiences of life where sunny pleasures meet hard rocks.

The museum is open every day from 10 am until 5 pm, and the exhibition runs until June 25. Full details can be found at www.tenbymuseum.org.uk.