A NEW solo exhibition featuring the art work of Beatrice Williams will go on show in Tenby this month.

She was introduced to the world of art by her art teacher Richard Broad at Maesydderwen Comprehensive School in Ystradgynlais, where she continues to reside today.

Frank Hamer from the Welsh Potters was the next main influence: He tutored Williams in pottery at Caerleon College of Education before she herself became a teacher of art and pottery in local schools.

“Making a living doing what you love most” she describes as being the perfect position, one she occupied for several years before leaving teaching to raise her own children.

After recovering from brain surgery in 1978, Williams decided to partner her husband Huw in the family business, The Mimosa Restaurant, Ystradgynlais – for a period of 18 years. “This was an environment where meeting with real people, salt of the earth characters, in the true sense of the word, is a real art. Here I learned lessons of life – truth, tolerance and compassion – however art was missing.”

To remedy the lack, she attended lifelong learning classes to re-learn techniques, master new mediums, and recover her confidence and enthusiasm. No one has been able to stop her since then. She can turn any corner and see a painting in it. “Each time I paint I am excited and wonder which way my brush will take me...”

She loves contrasting a dark building against a pale sky, or a white cottage against a stand of dark trees. She tries to capture the elusive beauties of nature and man’s structures within it – Welsh cottages sitting comfortably in their natural surroundings. Daisies, simple and sturdy, recur in her work like an addiction. “I feel part of them, blowing in the wind,” she said.

Her exhibition at The White Lion Street Gallery in Tenby opened on October 1 and runs until October 28. Everyone is invited to meet her in the gallery from 2pm to 4pm on Saturday, October 5. Her work may also be viewed on the website: www.artmatters.org.uk