July 15.

One of the recurring problems in reviewing the Society's four shows each year is that the same names -- those of established artists -- tend to crop up for mention all the time.

There are, of course, those welcome moments when a new talent emerges, but the temptation for any reviewer in a small community to latch on to just about anyone who is new to the scene, or `different', is obvious.

The end result is that we sometimes end up by short-changing the very artists who deserve constant encouragement in a field increasingly dominated by essentially commercial artists.

This time around, it was the expert opinion of The Copley Society of Boston's executive director, Georgiana Druchyk, that two-thirds of the works submitted deserved a place on the walls. Significantly, her choices virtually mirror the opinions of most jurors that have gone before her.

Even so, there is still a great divide between those whose work is regularly accepted and some of the exhibitors who have been included in this show. There is, however, hope for those who may, as yet, lack technical expertise.

According to Ms Druchyk, the qualities she looks for in a painting include colour, emotional impact, composition. She also mentions a sense of energy and design as being important, noting that even primitively executed work can be emotionally compelling and capable of making an artistic statement, the latter point being, in her opinion, the first law of all painting.

One of those who has been making artistic statements for a very long time now is Sam Morse-Brown, who celebrates the 94th year of his life by submitting a new self-portrait painted a couple of years ago. It is a large work in which he is seen in appropriate artist's smock daubed, as are his hands, with the paints of his trade.

Unmistakably -- and not merely because of the halo of snowy white hair -- Sam has captured his own likeness; there is not, perhaps, the attention to exquisite detail which has so distinguished his portraits over the years, but possibly this was intentional, with Sam in more impressionistic mood. As always, he captures wonderfully, the luminosity of skin tones and there are reminders in this work as to why his paintings have truly earned the cachet of `international', earning places in major, indeed national, galleries overseas.

Those of us who have been around awhile will also remember the sense of shock when Sheilagh Head's uniquely personal vision of Bermuda first burst upon the local art scene. Like Monet and other impressionists, she often paints the same scene over and over again. Careful observers will see that, just as a musician's interpretation of a score becomes, in effect, one long variation on an established theme, so does her artistic vocabulary continue to redefine itself within the same framework.

Her strength as a colourist is matched by an unerring sense of composition, hinting often of the arcane. Such is the case with the still waters of her Pembroke Canal, enfolded in a tangle of marsh grasses shot with sunlight, and in the almost abstracted view of a wind-bent cedar tree, or wintry clouds that cast broody reflections in the deserted expanses of the sea-shore.

Christopher Marson is another artist, mentioned by Ms Druchyk, along with Sheilagh Head and Vaughan Evans as examples of painters whose work has an unmistakable "signature''.

The former vividly demonstrates the diversity of this painting business with a set of six watercolours which, with their beautifully understated use of colour and line, continue also, to define the essential core of our Island landscape.

There are some artists who seem to grow before our very eyes: both Vaughan Evans and Elmer Midgett seem to strike out for new fields with every show.

Apparently in a virtual fever of artistic creation, Vaughan Evans, always noted for his versatility, has moved his focus for the moment into a more close-up examination of his surroundings. A series of banana plant studies, realised in rich pastels, are among some of his very best work. Banana Gothic takes us through a cathedral roof of huge overhanging leaves that drip purple, serpentine flowers.

Elmer Midgett is essentially an artist's artist, whose strong technique takes him, nevertheless, along a lonely path: to put it bluntly, if he produced more of his dramatic land and seascapes, he would probably attract wider appeal; as it is, he paints whatever takes his fancy. This time, it is an old plastic garden chair, girded in violent strips of factory colour, juxtaposed with the timeless patina of flower-filled terra cotta pots. This picture, which captures another, if more prosaic essence of a Bermuda summer, illustrates just how powerfully this artist teaches us to look at things in a new light.

Diana Amos, who is currently displaying her oil paintings in a group show at the Windjammer Gallery, has contributed three watercolours to this show, all of them vintage Amos. She, too, has a distinct signature in her depiction of the Bermuda scene: take a look at her portrayal in soft brown hues, of Bermuda's timeless dialogue with the sea, this time on the dockside where a young girl works among the clutter of ropes and timber at Darrell's Boatyard.

There are two works by another of our undoubted professionals, Otto Trott. It goes almost without saying that His Fishermen with Net is striking, but the colours lack that distinguishing clarity we are accustomed to finding in his work. Far more satisfying is his smaller oil of Boat on Slip, also showing the Island busy at work.

In reflective mood at the moment is Amy Evans, following on her successful family show at the Windjammer with some rarer inland scenes, notably a lily field and Spring Green, where a leafless tree seen against a green wooden shed is one of the loveliest of her recent watercolours.

One of our most gifted sculptors is Elizabeth Ann Trott, who has just one piece in this show, but a beautiful and lively one, a bronze canine entitled A Bad Case of Summer Blues, brought on, presumably by a bad case of fleas, as he is frantically biting his back.

Bruce Stuart is going through something of a sea-change. A looser brush and a change of focus is seen in his Sound View, an impressionistic rendering of two women walking through a Bermuda country lane. It is encouraging to see an artist determined to grow and to experiment. Strictly speaking, though, having admitted he copied this picture, it should surely have been attributed.

There are some delightful pictures, too, from other regulars, such as Valerie Weddup, also turning indoors for a vibrantly painted still life, Judith Wadson's hand-coloured photographs that capture the quintessential old Bermuda, and David Dill's painterly interior of Edey's Hill.

Among the many works that also catch the eye is an atmospheric beach scene by Bob Herr entitled Morning Mist, but looking as if it is deteriorating into a full-blown storm, a beautiful line drawing of a supine male nude by Stacy Wainwright, a quartet of small pen and watercoloured drawings of a woman bathing by the gifted Helen Whight, and some jewel-hued gouaches by Helen Daniel, notably No Rain where vivid pink geraniums pose beside a watering can.

Frank Dublin, new on the circuit, has produced two fascinating pieces, one in pastel and the other, an oil, painted in rich earth colours which set off the enigmatic Basket Girl in her blue dress.

In nautical mood, a circle of Randy Puckett's Whales dominate the centre of the exhibition room. These noble creatures, wrought in all shapes and sizes of bronze by the American sculptor, also fill the Society's small gallery as part of a separate highly popular exhibition. Profits are being donated to the Bermuda Zoological Society and the Bermuda Society of Arts, both, surely, very good causes.

This gift certainly comes at the right time for the Arts Society as they inaugurate their collection of contemporary art. Pictures by Vaughan Evans and Christopher Marson were selected from this show as the first to be purchased by the Society.

PATRICIA CALNAN