Oriel Ffwrnes Gallery has unveiled plans to launch a virtual art exhibition this autumn where local people are the stars of the show.

Entitled ‘Step Forward’ the online exhibition will showcase a collection of photographs from the gallery’s resident artist and curator, the award-winning Welsh painter and photographer Michele Laugharne Perrott BA(Hons), MA.

This online art exhibition will showcase the photography of this Welsh visual artist, as she captures the post lockdown moments of newly embraced freedom in the day to day activities of local people and places in beautiful West Wales. Many of the photographs were taken in and around the Llanelli and West Wales area and feature places and faces that will be familiar to those living locally or anyone who loves visiting this corner of Wales.

Talking about the exhibition, Michele said: “The pandemic has allowed me to capture the shared experiences of normality in a redefined world, moments that are embraced and appreciated after months of lockdown.

"I have for many years been interested in capturing the very essence of what makes us who we are, within the broadness of social diversity. Stepping out of my isolated world into this newly charged environment, I watched with interest as people experienced their little piece of hesitant freedom and interacted warmly with those around them.

"In capturing those precious moments of joy in the most simple of things, being outdoors, available time to spend with loved ones, appreciation of the natural world around us; I realised that we now live with a new sense of belonging, of shared concerns and better understanding of the needs of others.”

While the doors to the Oriel Ffwrnes Gallery, which is based in the Ffwrnes Theatre in Llanelli, remain closed due to the ongoing pandemic, the exhibition will be hosted on Facebook.

The exhibition will then be open to view on Facebook for free until November 18.