years ago, artist Maria Evers Smith was a talented amateur. Since then, art watchers have observed her transformation into a professional painter with something that must approach astonishment.

Her one-woman show, currently on view at Heritage House is testimony to this, with 40 works that celebrate some of the more subtle as well as the obvious aspects of Bermuda's natural beauty.

She has described her show, which is entitled Byways, as a journey through Bermuda and, as the name suggests, there are her interpretations of the Island's outstanding beauty spots and architectural gems. It is also, however, a journey that for Maria (as she signs her work), may turn out to be rather different than she perhaps anticipated. For although she has referred to herself as primarily a landscape artist -- and there are indeed some splendid examples which should appeal particularly to those who covet a permanent reminder of Bermudian vistas -- it is her other work that now captures the attention and possibly points a new departure in terms of artistic focus.

The sensitivity, even tenderness, with which she paints her floral still-life compositions, the flowers and tangled hedgerows, the hidden `byways' that escape the typical tourist eye strongly suggest that this is where her real strength lies.

The other surprise, and Maria Smith never ceases to surprise us, is her emergence as a watercolourist. Tucked away in a corner of the show are a selection of modestly sized works that simply shout for attention. Again, all but one are flower studies and they reveal a genuine skill this medium.

Painted in translucent, gentle colours, they also indicate an eye for composition that is deceptively casual. A picnic basket beside a spray of spring flowers, a watering-can and sun hat reposing on the grass, a jar of common daisies, the convivial collection of a glass of wine set before a posy of flowers and an invitingly empty chair at a garden table all sigh of summer ambience.

Her watercolour impression of Fractious Street captures better than any of her oils, the shady somnolence of this intriguingly named and ancient thoroughfare.

Her floral paintings worked in oil, on the other hand, provide a radiant explosion of colour and confirm her now confidently rich brushwork. Her study of Geraniums, the extravagant cornucopia of blooms in her Spring Bouquet, the masterful little study of a pink hibiscus, and her blushing-blue Morning Glories all contrast in their vivid realism with the more impressionistic Bermudiana and the almost abstract colour exploration of In My Garden.

Two of the most striking pictures in the show are her magnificent pictures of Snapdragons, marching like a row of fantastically coloured soldiers through a Bermuda garden, and the luxuriously brushed bank of wild nasturtiums, whose orange petals and dark green foliage are illuminated by a shaft of sunlight.

The Old Farm, which shows Maria Smith at her landscape best, is a study of a traditional homestead, seen at the end of a sandy path bordered with dappled green and flowering bushes, still slumbering as it probably has for centuries under the drowsy island sun.

Oddly enough, since it was the seascapes that brought this artist her first public attention, most of these on show in this exhibition speak of the `old' rather than the `new' and, in my view, more exciting Maria Smith. There is a similarity here that reflects a perhaps understandable commercial duty rather than artistic fulfillment. Of the seascapes, Morning Surf is the most satisfying, painted in cool, quiet colours that capture beautifully the early light casting a pale gleam over the sea and wet sand. Chaplin Bay and Bermuda Blue reveal yet another new emphasis, for these introduce figures into her shorescapes. Chaplin Bay certainly evokes a sense of serene isolation and both are enhanced by expansive and delicately painted skies.

This exhibition heralds a major milestone for this year's President of the Bermuda Society of Arts. And the best thing about it is the sensation that we are sharing a journey of self-discovery that already calls for applause but which is really just beginning. Don't miss it.

PATRICIA CALNAN THE OLD FARM -- One of the paintings in Maria Evers Smith's one-woman show at Heritage House.