"You create your barriers,'' says artist Caroline Troncossi of art in Bermuda today.

In the strongest paintings from Caroline's recent work, grassy yellows and greens merge and absorb each other, blues descend through fathoms of ocean and the paintings draw you inside themselves. Some look like a picture out of focus -- the suggestion of a horizon, a land mass, water -- but any actual semblance of reality dissolves into depths of colour.

Caroline is 25-years-old, shops at health food stores, drinks copious amounts of water with aloe in it, and practises yoga daily, which she believes is a soothing influence on her work.

She admits that abstract art such as her recent work puzzles many people unfamiliar with art.

"When you look at artwork you bring who you are to the picture,'' Caroline says. "That's why most people like figurative painting and still lifes, because they see themselves and their everyday life in it right away. It's easy to look at and the colours are pleasurable to the eye.

"However, abstract art can be stronger than realistic painting -- the reason is because it plays with human emotion that the viewer is unaware of. It is subconscious emotion going on. Emotion does happen in realistic art, but it isn't as intense because it's easier to understand. Good abstract art seizes you, and sometimes you don't know why -- so it has a power over you.'' More young artists like Caroline are exploring approaches to art that veer away from traditional representations of the Island.

In her most recent body of work, titled `Bermuda Houses', Caroline depicted Bermuda houses as streams of colour seen in a blur from a fast-flying motorbike.

Caroline has studied art at Parson's School of Design in New York, Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design in London, England, and at summer art programmes in the United States and Italy.

She describes the growth of new approaches to art in Bermuda in the past ten years as being "externally generated''.

"Most of the new generation had education abroad,'' she says. "We're bringing in what's going on in the outside world. It's healthy for Bermuda -- it helps us stay more in time with the world.

"Younger artists are being more outspoken in their art. Bermuda is still extremely conservative, but not as much. Artists are doing work more from their individual point of view, and the result is a less stereotyped Bermuda.'' The artistic generational gap is particularly evident when Caroline's abstract work is seen side by side with her mother's. Her mother, Carole Holding, is one of the pioneers of painting idyllic scenes of pink cottages and blue harbours that get lapped up by Front Street tourists.

When asked if she had ever resented growing up in the shadow of pink cottages, Caroline says: "No, never. Definitely not.

"I think I have been influenced by the business side of art because of my household,'' she says. "I remember as I was growing up it was a production thing rather than doing it for the art itself.

"I don't shun it at all. It paid for me to go to become educated and have everything that I have. I think it's dying out, but so are tourists. Most artists today have a second job to survive.'' She laughs when asked if her name change has anything to do with a desire to be perceived as distinct from her mother.

"Holding is my mother's maiden name,'' she says. "My father's name is Tee, and that's what I grew up with, but I changed it to Troncossi.'' Breaking new ground "My grandparent's name was Troncossi, but they changed it to Tee after leaving Italy for England after World War II. They couldn't speak any English, but they thought it sounded more British.'' Abstract art such as Caroline's does not lend itself to the seemingly effortless flow of sales through the Carole Holding studios daily.

"Commercial art speaks widely to everyone,'' says Caroline. "With extreme fine art, though, it isn't as easy.

"People don't appreciate abstract art, not because they can't, but because of a lack of exposure -- going to galleries, reading an article about art. You don't need to get a fine arts degree, although that's the ultimate, of course.

The more you see, the more you click with it.

"From the public education standpoint, Masterworks and the Bermuda National Gallery are hosting shows that are more modern. They're encouraging that kind of art and then in turn the public is getting educated.'' Caroline cautions against heralding any recent diversity in Bermuda's art scene as being genuinely cutting edge, however.

"Even though Bermuda is just accepting a more avant-garde approach to art, it is actually old for the rest of the world,'' she says. "The work that's done in Bermuda is still extremely tame and behind the times.

What's going on in Bermuda is not any revelation -- it's just Bermuda catching up. It's good for the artists, though, because it frees us artistically.

"Bermuda, because it's an island, has the disadvantage of being the last on the list to be influenced externally. It has to happen in the big centres before it gets all the way out to us.

"But, at the same time, I think that what's happening on the Island is appropriate because Bermuda just came from the Bermuda cottage -- it's the first step out of that ideal.'' Cutting edge: `Skinny Dipping' (main picture) represents a change in direction from Caroline Troncossi's earlier work such as `Crystal Caves' (top right) and `Down Under' (above), which was completed while the artist was on a trip to Australia. All three works are now in private collections.