Small Works at the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard LAST, but not least in terms of quantity, of the Christmas oriented art shows is one entitled 'Small Works' at the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard.There are 228 works listed as on show, making it substantially bigger than any of its competition.

Quantity, of course, is no guarantee of quality. On the other hand one can reasonably hope to find some gold amongst the pyrites and, indeed that is the case at Dockyard.

For sheer lively fun it would be hard to beat Jonah Jones' ten small impressions of Bermuda Fitted Dinghy racing.

For the most part all the relevant technicalities have been observed. The dinghies move heavily through the water as they do in reality, laden down with their oversized crews. The wind and the water go hand in hand as they must.

The feeling of the controlled excitement of the race is palpable. As an advertisement, however, this small paean of praise will be useless. They all sold in the first 20 minutes.

There are eleven of Christopher Marson's understated watercolours of which only one is of less than his usual high standard.

To see them together on a single wall was like a breath of fresh air. There were also three oils, of which Afternoon Shadows and Evening Light were among his best.

Amanda Temple's exacting photography ranged from still life through flowers to Venetian scenes. Three works involving pears stood out, as did an intriguing Café Quadri in St. Mark's square. It appeared to be a photograph of the reflection of the square in the café's window with customers taking their coffee behind the reflective glass. The photographer's own reflection, however, was missing. Mystery intrigues.

There was little sculpture, but Chesley Trott's Blue Whale was outstanding for its elegance and grace of movement.

Carla Marquardt's rather awesomely produced Racu pottery achieved rather less than graceful results, though Dolphin Fish had considerable character.

Eileen Thorne's beautifully painted and lacquered eggs would be more appropriate for Easter, but were nevertheless exquisite.

Suzie Lowe's hand built ceramics come off best when they are not abstracted.

Closed for the Season, with its structured but interrupted steps, and Scenic Route had far more character than the Fruits, Berries and Nuts.

Perhaps best of all among the non-painted work were Lynn Morrell's three textiles. This is the kind of embroidery that used to be thought to make people blind. Fine detail matched with sharp contrasts produces extremely lively results quite unexpected in such work. Mrs. Morrell goes from strength to strength.

Peggy Peniston set herself a challenge by reproducing Chauvet cave paintings using only natural found objects as tools (no brushes) and the result must have pleased her more than somewhat. The originals are, of course, well known, but that detracts not one whit from these remarkable reproductions.

Her watercolour of a cat looking at goldfish from the far side of their tank has both humour and quality, as does Gulp, a goldfish gulping air on the surface of its pond.

Most of our better-known artists are also to be seen, for the most part predictably themselves. Sheilagh Head's small work is often more interesting than her large and so it is here, very lively and strong.

One of them, Cedar and Chimneys, has the odd effect, because of the continuity of horizon and eave line and the similar values of water and shade, of disembodying the subject house, leaving it to look more like a ghostly wraith.

Charles Zuill presents seven of his obsessively similar mixed media abstracts. One of them might pass as interesting; seven together are merely boring. So too are his three ink and watercolour takes on exactly the same house in exactly the same breeze blowing exactly the same laundry in exactly the same way. Rendering them in three different lights makes them no less obsessive and dull.

Inevitably this enormous show is a mixed bag. As of Monday morning there were some good works by good artists at what I thought were good prices.

If you are looking for a painting as a gift you may well find a suitable one here as long as you don't want a Jonah Jones Fitted Dinghy painting!