Welsh artist Neil Caroll has really been enjoying working towards an exhibition of fresh new paintings based on Pembrokeshire to be shown at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery this summer.

A 60-year love affair with Tenby and also with painting is revealed as he describes how, in the midst of a bucket-and-spade family holiday, his family met painter John Uzzell Edwards. The artist, who turned up in a red Porsche, proceeded to give them a personal guided tour of a new exhibition in an empty Tenby town house.

“We were led up through each of the three floors in turn and as well as John’s own paintings, there was work by John Piper and Graham Sutherland in there too, I was fascinated by the work and John’s commentary, along with the creak of the floorboards and the intoxicating scent of the turpentine and oil paints, which added to the magical experience.”

Neil Carroll has a fresh eye and an open heart; the paintings glow and Carroll portrays this beloved part of Pembrokeshire in an extraordinary way.

At the village of Penally in Summer, he loves watching the swallows swooping under the trees on the green. The church and the ancient stones have their own resonance and form part of Carroll’s own pilgrimage to soak up these magical qualities.

“Penally is certainly a focal point… though I love the whole area and Manorbier and Freshwater West are particularly inspirational,” he says.

A teacher in Art Education for 30 years, Rhymney-born Neil was the subject of a ‘First Hand’ programme made for the BBC in 2001.

Carroll’s touring exhibition ‘Here Comes the Sun’ represented Wales at The International Festival InterCeltique at Lorient, Brittany in 2010. 

This year, from February to June, Neil has curated a Newport College of Art themed exhibition of thirty six former students and tutors titled ‘Forty Years On’ at Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

Neil Carroll’s exhibition ‘The Warmth of the Sun’ can be viewed at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery from August 7 to September 26, 2024.