Artist Joel Janowitz, whose paintings and prints have been exhibited in the Metropolitan and Whitney Museums in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, will be giving an illustrated talk on his work prior to the opening of the Bermuda Society of Arts' Spring Show on Friday.

Mr. Janowitz, who is the guest juror for the show, has just been given a juror's award of his own -- first prize from the Boston Print Makers for their 50th Anniversary North American Print Exhibition.

"He is also a wonderful teacher -- certainly one of the best I ever had,'' says Society governing body member Cathie Draycott, a former pupil of his at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

"He makes these wonderful, lush paintings which are loose but very deliberate, and he has a beautiful sense of colour. I think everyone will really enjoy his talk as he expresses himself so well, is very easy to understand and not at all egotistical or pretentious, even though he is a very, very accomplished artist whose work in many of the leading American institutions -- including the Metropolitan.'' Ms Draycott says he is especially suited as a juror for the Society as he is the sort of teacher who looks at what an artist is doing instead of what he or she is not doing. "He looks at an artist's strengths rather than their weaknesses and also gives very specific projects which teach a lot about colour design values and subject matter. He was one of those teachers who believed that specific projects were necessary in order to learn the technical side of painting. He encouraged people, and you would find that at the end of his class, people who had never painted before were painting happily as if they'd been doing it for years!'' Cathie Draycott, who gave her first solo show at Masterworks last year, happily admits that he has influenced her work. "Many of the paintings I did for that show sprang directly from the work I did for him, especially the series of dolls and dresses.'' Noted US artist Revealing that the first `dress' painting in that series was sold in a Copley Society student exhibition in Boston, Ms Draycott recalls that he was very skilful in encouraging artistic imagination at the same time as developing technique.

A recipient of awards from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, an Artist's Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bicentennial Painting Commission, the New York Foundation for the Arts and The Artists Foundation, Mr. Janowitz is nationally known on the teaching circuit.

At present, he is teaching both at Harvard and Princeton Universities, and has also taught at Brown, the University of California and Wellesley College.

He has also been the subject of numerous articles in various art publications, newspapers and exhibition brochures, as well as having his work featured in calendars published by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The Bermuda Society of Arts Members' Spring Show opens at their City Hall Gallery this Friday evening. Joel Janowitz will give his Illustrated Talk on his his own work at 5.30 p.m.

JOEL'S CHOICE -- Leading American artist Joel Janowitz whose oil study `Set Up' is shown above, is the juror for the Bermuda Society of Arts Members' Spring Show which opens on Friday.