Mrs. Betty Lynch, A.W.S., a prominent American artist who is currently conducting a painting workshop for some of Bermuda's artists, says that she would love to return "on her own'' to paint in Bermuda.

Of her first visit here, she says,"I think it's a wonderful place. I have many friends here already -- I feel as though I have, anyway! I am seeing things that tourists don't normally see, so I'm very fortunate.'' Mrs. Lynch, who has travelled (and taught) in many areas of the world, has been invited here by the Arts Centre at Dockyard to run the week-long workshop which is being attended by about 18 full-time participants, as well as part-timers.

On Monday evening, she gave a well-attended slide lecture on her work at the Bermuda National Gallery.

A signature member of the American Watercolour Society, she has received several major awards (including the Ed Whitney Award in 1987), and has been twice featured in the American Artist Magazine, and the Western Art Digest.

Despite "working very hard here'', Mrs. Lynch says she has managed to see the Gombey dancers out at Dockyard: "I've never seen anything like that before. I hope they will surface in time in one of my pictures.'' Mrs. Lynch is a Texas-based watercolourist whose approach to her art is highly individual.

Vehemently opposed to what she calls the "copying'' of photographs, she keeps books of sketches drawn on the spot, sketches which she calls her "vault of memories to be called upon for subject matter''.

Her teaching is always undertaken in a studio setting to encourage a creative, intuitive approach.

"I realise this is only one of the many ways of painting, so I hope the students will incorporate this searching attitude into their existing experience.'' Students, she maintains, should value the necessity of technique, but not allow it to become an end in itself: "They should realise that the creative potential is even more important.'' Abstract shapes and colours are the most important element in her paintings, she explains.

"I don't know what I'm going to paint when I start. I take the shapes and colours, turn and turn them and see what I can use.

"Something will trigger my imagination and I paint it and then I go on to the bit next to it and sometimes I don't know what the subject will be until I'm halfway through.'' She emphasises that she paints with no pre-conceived ideas: "I have a lot of fun `finding' a painting, and subject matter is determined by the underpinnings and the abstract shapes that I've come up with. I am not the sort of painter who plans a street scene, for instance, or people -- I just wait and see!'' This method, she says, is not as easy as copying. "In my classes, there are no photos, and nothing is set up for anyone to copy.'' As fine a technician as she is a colourist, Mrs. Lynch says her sketches are filled with the "factual things'', many of which are executed in different techniques, sometimes under rather difficult circumstances -- as when she did a series of ballet sketches totally in the dark, during a performance.

As a child, Betty Lynch did a lot of sketching but, surprisingly, says she never started painting until after her children were in school.

It was not until her husband's death, 25 years ago, that she began to take the art of watercolour "seriously.'' Altogether, she has been painting for about 30 years and says that paint often features in the pile of sketchbooks she has accumulated during her travels around the world.

"Every trip I make is recorded in a sketchbook.'' Besides teaching all over the US, she has also worked in China, India, Nepal, Thailand, Hong Kong, Tahiti, Mexico and South America, England and continental Europe.

Her greatest love remains Italy, where she has taught workshops for the past 13 years.

"Italy has become my summer home -- although I don't speak the language!'' Mrs. Lynch's introduction to Bermuda came when she met local artists Molly and Joe Smith.

"We met in France at an international workshop. It was really a music workshop but there were about 30 artists. Very nice for us, because we were painting away with all this wonderful music going on. So it was through them, that I am here.'' Declining to comment on local art -- "I haven't seen much'', Mrs. Lynch is thrilled by the vast setting of the upper room in the Clocktower Building at Dockyard for her workshop.

"It's a wonderful building -- the way Dockyard was built to last for ever...

We have more room up there than we know what to do with -- usually, I have to work in very cramped surroundings.

"I also like your City Hall building, and I thought the Carib Art Show was fascinating.'' BIRD STUDIES -- Two watercolours by visiting American artist Betty Lynch.

WATERCOLOUR ABSTRACTS -- Emphasis on shape and colour form the basis of Betty Lynch's paintings.

SOLD ON BERMUDA -- Artist Betty Lynch.