Stuck in England during the pandemic, Jodie Tucker got hooked on a song.

She played Strange Boat by The Waterboys, a British-Irish folk rock band, over and over again.

“It made me think of Bermuda. I was missing the island, my family and friends and reminiscing on my childhood growing up on the edge of Hungry Bay,” she said.

Desperate to express herself, the longtime artist got to work. An exhibit of roughly 20 pieces opens at Rock Island Coffee on November 3. She calls it Island Girl.

“It's been three years getting this collection finished and together,” said Ms Tucker, who is better known in Bermuda for her floral paintings.

Island Girl is a sharp deviation. The images all began as collages, some of which incorporate painting and/or hand embroidery.

Ms Tucker was initially inspired by a print of a 19th-century sculpture.

“I was drawn to her face – her serene quality, eyes looking downward. I used an array of images from sea fans, corals, fish and printed texts from the song Strange Boat, and Shakespeare’s Tempest, all printed onto archival papers and then painstakingly cut and glued.

“The process of collage is extremely intricate. It takes many hours finding the images then cutting them out with special scissors shaped to cut delicate curved areas and then placing them over and over until you are happy with the composition. Many of my first attempts ended up in the trash.”

The hard work was worth it. The print was accepted into the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition.

“I don't usually enter competitions but the title that year was Finding the Magic in Art and I had already done her; it wasn't like I had to create something.

“Normally, if I get a title, I can't do it. But I entered her in that and that actually did get through. It was a real boost.”

Ms Tucker next discovered Portrait of a Young Woman, an 18th-century pastel by a Swiss artist, Jean-Etienne Liotard.

Rachael Baptiste lived and performed in Ireland during the mid-1700s and, because of her voice, was dubbed the “Black Siren” by John O’Keefe, an Irish actor and writer of that time.

“She had an enigmatic quality I loved and on researching the painting I found that she was a singer of Caribbean descent with an astonishing voice,” Ms Tucker said.

She used “prints of lithographs, of sea corals, sea plants, flying fish, seahorses, shells etc to create her hair”.

Old maps of Bermuda were used to create the bodice of her dress.

“All the works of Island Girl have started from collage which I then photograph and print off on to various surfaces — from watercolour papers to linens and cotton.

“Some are then worked on with hand embroidery adding texture, or hand painting on top of the print. I also have worked on some with digital effects.

“These vibrant coloured giclee prints are Warholesque in style. There are also some interior pieces of cushions and handmade lampshades [and] prints on cotton of my original watercolours.”

The prints and the cushions can be ordered to any size required.

“Her face to me had a serene look — that's what I wanted,” Ms Tucker said. “I wanted the face to be soulful, so you could look at it and just feel it.

“I looked through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of images on the computer and I found her and I just thought, ‘You're the one’. And then I wanted to know more about her and find out who she was.”

Ms Tucker left Bermuda at 13 for school in England. At 15 she enrolled in an art school and studied textiles; three years later she transferred to Rhode Island School of Design where she focused on painting.

“I've had shows here over the years – five decades of painting shows and different things,” she said. “I change all the time, I’m very experimental but if people think of Jodie Tucker’s paintings, they normally would think of still lifes and florals.

“I last did just a members’ show at [Bermuda Society of Arts]. My last big show here must have been eight years ago. I had a solo show in the Edinburgh Gallery [at BSoA]. I've [also] shown at Masterworks.”

Apart from when travel was limited by the pandemic, she divides her time between her children and grandchildren in Bermuda and England.

It took her three years to complete the collection that will exhibit next month.

Ms Tucker said the work might come as a surprise to people who are familiar with her as an artist.

“It did start by being isolated in this very small space. When you're painting you need [to be able to move your arms more] and I just couldn't.

“I don't really know why. And then I started looking and thinking, ‘Well, I've never tried collage…..’

“It's interesting because the majority of the feedback that I've had that's been really, really positive and up. has actually been from a younger generation.

“They probably don't think of me in [a particular way]. I’m not in a box to them I'm just somebody that is doing this work and they really love it, they really tap into it.

“I'm excited to see what the reaction is [once the show opens] because I'm not expecting everybody to get it but it's what's come out of me and I feel strongly about it.”

Island Girl opens at Rock Island Coffee on November 3.