THIRTY oil paintings, produced in the last year, comprise the new exhibition for October at The White Lion Street Gallery in Tenby.

The artist Peter Cooper, who has lived in Pembrokeshire for nearly 30 years, shows town and landscapes, environments with traditional architecture and evidence of human activity, scenes and subjects that have appealed to his emotions and interests.

Peter expresses strong views on the contemporary art world, 'one that is full of artifice and illusion...' and he found in art college that 'students were not focusing on painting itself, as a skill needed to make images in paint, so much as being concerned about fitting into the current ideas as to what art should be.'

He himself makes no excuse for preferring to use traditional skills with paint, canvas and methods to the emperor's new clothes of 'conceptual art' that may require much explanation for the viewer to understand.

He simply intends his paintings to convey some of his feelings about the subject and for them to be enjoyed for their own sake.

With sketchbook and camera, Peter is always looking out for subjects that speak to him, whether it be a dramatic lighting effect, a homely farm or an isolated coastline.

His initial images are gradually translated into paint in the studio, with the many necessary decisions about methodology being made along the way.

"Making a painting is not copying a scene," he says, "it is creating an object in its own right," and the problems to be solved in the process are part of the pleasures derived from painting.

Peter Cooper's exhibition runs from October 1-28, every day except Wednesdays, from 10 am to 5 pm. It will be opened by artist Gwilym Prichard. The gallery is situated in Tenby, opposite the town walls and next to the former cinema. For further information, 'phone 843375.