where they could recognise themselves...it is also important that they are painted by one of their own' By Nancy Acton Each May, thousands gather along the streets of Hamilton to watch the spectacle of the Heritage Day parade unfold. Floats, gombeys and majorettes are hot favourites and sure-fire crowd-pleasers, but once the day has passed they become but memories for most spectators.

Not so for Otto Trott, however. For ten years the well-known local artist has captured on film his fascination with the human elements of the big parade, knowing that some day he would commit some of those images to canvas.

And on Friday the walls of the Masterworks Foundation gallery on Front Street will sing with the vibrancy, colour and rhythm of the gombeys and majorettes as his one-man show opens for a two-week run under the Artists Up Front Street banner.

While Mr. Trott has always cast his artistic eye wide, capturing everything from water scenes to landscapes and human activity, as a Bermudian he also feels it is important to record for all time an oft-neglected aspect of local life: its black inhabitants.

"I want to paint Bermudian people because they haven't been painted where they could recognise themselves,'' Mr. Trott explains, "No offence to anybody, but I think it is also important that they are painted by one of their own. It is not that somebody from overseas wouldn't have the Bermudian soul or anything like that. It is almost like a national pride issue that a Bermudian paints a Bermudian.'' In any case, Mr. Trott says, while artists have always travelled from one country or culture to another, painting its people, there is something very special about when a countryman paints his own.

"It is almost like a relative painting the family,'' he explains. "That's how I feel about my subjects. There is a fashion group called FUBU - For us, By us -- and it's the same when I paint.'' Delighted that Masterworks chose to schedule his one-man show in the lead-up to the Heritage Day Parade, Mr. Trott is confident his subject matter will strike a special chord not only in the casual viewer but also those who are gombeys and majorettes themselves.

The artist also assures that his show will be "G-rated''.

"Anybody can enjoy these paintings,'' he says. "I have tried to put a lot of excitement in the pictures -- bright colours and movement -- but I have also tried to avoid anything that is overly sexual or political. I wanted the paintings to be about prettiness.'' Mr. Trott notes that while many of Bermuda's younger artists are focussing on abstract art, he chooses not to follow in the interests of art history.

"To me Bermuda doesn't have a real long art history, and there are a lot of things in Bermudian culture which haven't been done,'' he says. "In my paintings you can recognise what the subject is, but I try to do that in a painterly sort of way.'' Viewers will, however, find abstract elements in his paintings, derived from such things as shadows and reflections, which give the works rhythm, movement and excitement.

Heritage art Born in 1954, Mr. Trott has painted all his life. During his student days at Berkeley Institute he was taught by one of Bermuda's leading artists, the late Mr. Charles Lloyd Tucker, who inspired his young charge to pursue art as a career.

Taking his advice, Mr. Trott trained as an art teacher, gaining his Certificate in Education from Bognor Regis College of Education in West Sussex, England, following which he returned to teach at Berkeley for eight years.

Then, deciding to put more into his own painting, Mr. Trott attended the Maryland Institute College of Art where he gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

Today, the father of two owns the Clear View Art Gallery on the North Shore Road in Hamilton Parish, together with his wife Carrolee, and when he is not at his easel, he can be found working shifts as an Immigration officer at the Bermuda airport.

Mr. Trott has previously participated in exhibitions at Masterworks and the Bermuda Society of Arts, and currently has a painting included in the Bermuda National Gallery's Biennial show, the subject of which ties in with this week's Artist Up Front Street show as well as Heritage Month.

Otto Trott's one-man exhibition,"Bermuda Day Parade & Other Works,'' is at the Masterworks Gallery on Bermuda House Lane from May 12-25. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday. Admission is free.

Steps & Shadows: Otto Trott captures the rhythm and excitement of the gombeys in oils. In addition to their frenetic dancing and colourful costumes, he embraces the abstract through the shadows and reflections they create.

Perfectly timed for Heritage Month, Mr. Trott's solo exhibition at the Masterworks Gallery on Front Street, entitled Bermuda Day Parade and Other Works, will feature many paintings of gombeys and majorettes.