The beauty and variety of Pembrokeshire landscape has been the predominant source of inspiration for artist Sue Pomery Wilks as she has prepared in the last year for her solo exhibition in Tenby.

This has resulted in 30 large paintings depicting summer lanes blowsy with meadowsweet and cow parsley, paths through warm dunes, stormy seas and wintry shores, bluebell woodlands in spring and autumnal mountains and moorlands.

Sue Pomery Wilks was brought up in Falmouth, Cornwall, and at an early age had absorbed many of the principles of perspective, recession and colour from her father, a talented amateur artist.

She had the desire to become a professional artist at age 15, but instead of entering art college she trained as a nurse. Throughout her training, Sue continued to paint in watercolour and oil, selling to friends and colleagues.

With two young children at school, Sue painted for herself when she had time, and joined local art classes, doing life drawing.

Not until her daughters left university did she feel able to take up art study full-time.

With her family's encouragement, she enrolled at Carmarthen College of Art and Design, firstly taking an access course, since she had no formal school qualifications, then embarking on a degree course for a further two years.

After graduation, she took up painting seriously and with great success having sold many hundreds of her paintings to eager buyers from around the world.

The impasto acrylic paintings, paint applied with a palette knife, are rich in colour and surface texture, and full of energy capturing some of the artist's enthusiasm and passion for her subject.

She works very quickly, starting with a simple composition of her idea and deciding on horizon levels and tonal values: "I use my memory of a place and how it felt, refer to sketches done on the spot and my photographs too. I rarely mix colours, preferring to scoop two or three colours straight from the tub - the viewer's eyes do the work."

The exhibition opened at The White Lion Street Gallery yesterday (Thursday) and continues until July 27, with an opportunity to meet the artist tomorrow (Saturday) from 2-4 pm. The gallery is open daily except for Wednesdays, from 10 am to 5 pm. The entire exhibition may be viewed on the website http://www.artmatters.org.uk">www.artmatters.org.uk