Paul Schexnayder’s art gallery on St. Peter Street was packed with people Sunday afternoon as local artist Jerome Weber introduced a new art exhibit depicting New Iberia’s most memorable locations in his paintings. 

“Jerome Weber Paints New Iberia” featured more than a dozen local landscapes put on the canvas for local art aficionados to feast their eyes upon. The paintings ranged from renditions of Main Street to cow pastures off Admiral Doyle Drive. 

The reception was held from 3 to 5 p.m. at the art studio. There was wine and cheese available for patrons to sip and munch on while exploring the new exhibit, which features 15 of his painting.

The exhibit will be open Wednesday through Dec. 1 

The 64-year-old Weber, who has been the long-time organizer for the Shadow-on-the-Teche Plein Air competition each year in New Iberia, said the exhibit took him about three months to finish. 

“I’ve been working on it for about three months. Some of them took time to scout the scenes that I liked,” Weber, who also designed the poster for next year’s Books Along the Teche Literary Festival, said at the event. “I wanted places that people would recognize.”

All of the paintings were distinctly New Iberia, from a scene Weber painted of a tractor hauling sugar cane to a bayouside view of Pelican’s on the Bayou. 

New Iberia’s train station, the Shadows-on-the-Teche, the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes and Squirrel Run were other paintings of choice.

The New Iberia High School graduate (Class of 1972) said he started painting as a way to relieve stress of working in the financial sector. He chose oil painting on canvas as his outlet and a hobby blossomed into a business.