An eclectic mix of Bermuda?s artists are coming together for the new show opening at the Desmond Fountain Gallery on Friday. The artisans are Jonah Jones, Will Collieson, Sheilagh Head, Dan Dempster, Bruce Stuart, Graham Foster, Christopher Marson and James Toogood.

Gallery manager Sophie Cressall said the show will focus on major pieces.

?It will be an interesting show as we have some of Bermuda?s leading artists showing together each displaying their own individual style and technique,? Ms Cressall said. ?We are also very excited as this will be the first time we will be showing Graham Foster?s work.?

James Toogood will be exhibiting four of his watercolours in this show.

?What I?ve decided to do for this show is some of what I have been giving Desmond for the past several months,? he said. ?One is of the South Shore, one of Coral Beach, and another is of Coco Reef beach ? the old Stonington, but it was done before some of the sand washed away so you can see some of the rocks, but it is not as prominent as it was earlier this year. I have painted Tobacco Bay so many times, but this one is at high tide, it?s a vertical, and it?s got a lot of puffy clouds. In fact a couple of the paintings feature really strong cloud formations.?

The reason that he decided to do these particular paintings was because he had the partial list of other exhibitors. ?I thought, this will be something that nobody else will be doing,? he said. ?I love painting Bermuda and I especially love painting St. George?s. I thought that if Bruce (Stuart) was going to be doing his traditional style ? I didn?t want to have two or three paintings of the same thing.

?So, I just thought that this would be a way that I could slide in and everybody would probably doing something distinctive. The other thing that I am really excited about is that most of the artists in this show are friends of mine and I have met everybody except Chris Marson and I am a big fan of his work.

?So, it is going to be really exciting to have two artists doing watercolour that are so completely different in their approach. I was hoping to be able to meet him, but I am not going to be able to stay for the reception, as I have a master class at the Woodmere Art Museum, in Philadelphia.?

Continuing on with his night time series is artist Bruce Stuart.

?I wanted to have a continuing thought of the night time series and the cut out houses ? they are kind of a throwback, but they are kind of cool and at an odd angle. It sort of people on their toes ? not knowing what to expect,? says Mr. Stuart.

?Sophie is coming by tomorrow to see if she wants to take any of my bronzes, so I am not sure if there will be some of them in the show or not.?

He has worked in acrylics for this show, which he said: ?It?s kind of cool because I?ve just enjoyed doing them and there is always a sense of mystery, which makes it interesting for me as well as everybody else.?

Another artist is Will Collieson, who is the former Smith?s and Triminghams, window designer.

?Well I?ve got four new pieces that I have been working on for a while,? he said. ?They are two dimensional, but they are composites of objects and some I think is a minorly edgy ? I am kind of taking these a little bit further in as far at the imagery.

?The Desmond Fountain Gallery is ideal for showing smaller pieces of work.?

While describing the pieces used to create his work, he said: ?If I said they are found items ? that would sound a little crusty, but they are pre-used materials and they are in the form of a collage and encapsulated behind glass.

?These are two dimensional and the format is that of a painting, but they are composites of materials. I have all sorts of things in my work like bone, dead lizards and frogs and so forth ? so, it is in that vein.

?I think they will be interesting.?

Remembering Smith?s and Triminghams, he said it was a job that he really liked.

?So, I was really quite upset when they fired me,? he said, ?And this day and age is a very niche industry and departmental store retailing is a thing of the past in Bermuda. It has been difficult finding work, but I have been working for myself and I am doing a lot of work for the Phoenix and I putting in the art in Trimingham?s, as they are using the windows to highlight community events and it should be like that up until Christmas ? and so far, so good.

?I have been getting a lot of work coming in especially with Christmas coming up and it was probably what I always needed ? sometimes you become terribly safe. But I am spending a lot more time on art and I have a lot more time on that and the two so well together.

?One, the windows forced me to produce, but I have had to readapt.?

Dan Dempster an artist who recently changed his style has continued on in his new vein of work for this show.

?The work will be further paintings of skyscapes, involving water and the sky that were so successful at my Sky, Sand & Sea show at

Masterworks,? he said.

Viewers will see several new paintings from the artist Graham Foster.

?I?ll have six or so paintings in this show ? two medium sized and four small acrylic on linen and wood,? said Mr. Foster. ?The two main paintings are called The Bored Angel and The Aftermath.

?The Aftermath was inspired by a Stuart Hayward article, part of which mentioned a scenario where Bermuda could be cut off from the States and Europe due to some catastrophe.

?How would Bermuda cope in this situation? Once supplies ran out and the last bream was caught off the rocks what then?

?Anarchy would probably set in, survival of the fittest and all that. This painting depicts a stormy night over a neighbourhood in the throes of anarchy, flames, lynchings ? that type of thing.

?The Bored Angel was inspired by a BBC radio show where the guest speakers were questioning exactly what goes on in heaven if it exists at all.

?They figured that perched on a cloud, strumming away on a harp for all eternity could become somewhat tedious and eventually the male angels would be checking out the female angels on the other side of the cloud, deviant thoughts would set in and you?d be booted off your cloud to fall down south where who knows? It could be a lot more fun.?

There is also a set of four small studies of Chupacabra (The Goat Sucker) a recurring element in some of his paintings representing some impending omen.

?The Goatsucker is a bird-like creature supposedly responsible for draining the blood from cows, chickens and goats throughout Latin America,? he said.

Watercolour artist Chris Marson has eight new paintings for this show, four acrylics that he said look like oils.

This is a new medium for him and they are landscapes and water, which he said: ?It?s pretty much everything I do.?

The show opens on Friday evening and remains up until November 22.