The husband and wife team Masterworks has invited to be their Artists in Residence for 2004 have been awed by the Island?s beauty and uniqueness which they say has helped them grow artistically.

Jennifer Hinrichs and Michael Steinhauser are part of the Masterworks Foundation?s artists in residence programme. They arrived on the Island on July 10 and they depart seven days after their September 3, exhibition at the Arrowroot Gallery, in the Botanical Gardens.

Mrs. Hinrichs, who has been drawing and painting for her entire life, was born is Glasgow and educated in Toronto, Canada.

Although she now teaches art, she had previously worked as an art director in both advertising and publishing companies, and designed several leading magazines.

Mr. Steinhauser, a New Yorker and Torontonian, has been at his easel since he was 12-years-old.

He studied oil painting, a medium he continues to use, at Trinity Studio, Brooklyn. He then spent many years in an academic career and in 1997, he returned to his first love ? painting.

He said: ?In those days you weren?t really allowed to follow art, they always thought that it was a hobby ? so I really had another career before this and in about 93 ? I decided to go back to art and now it is what I do.?

The couple heard about the Artists in Residence programme after visiting The Masterworks Collection, of Bermudian paintings.

?They (Masterworks) came to the gallery at the University of Toronto and I was really impressed with what they were doing,? she said.

?We saw this brochure from the Masterworks Foundation talking about The Artists in Residence Programme and as Michael and I are both painters, we thought that we would apply.

?Lucky for us we got accepted and that?s how we came to be here and we are really thrilled to be apart of the programme that Tom Butterfield (director of the Masterworks Foundation) is getting together because we are both artists and teachers.

?It is kind of an opportunity to contribute something and we get to paint here, which is wonderful and we get to be inspired by the Island and we can also give something back by contributing ? so it is a great two way thing.?

At the end of every Artists in Residence session, which can run from two to three months at a time, there is an exhibition.

?They give you a show and your work is for sale and 25 percent goes to Masterworks to help run the programme,? she said, ?And one painting gets donated to Masterworks and the rest you can take home.?

They are both part of The RedeEye Studio Gallery, in Toronto, and Mrs. Hinrichs said it was fun for them to work together.

?I think that we might be the first artist couple who are both painters and teachers,? said Mr. Steinhauser. ?I think it is a great privilege to be able to give something back.

?We did one afternoon workshop (Masterworks Art Camp) with the children, and some of them were extremely talented.?

She said the artists that come during the winter usually give weekend workshops.

Mr. Steinhauser?s style is classical realism in oils and portraiture, which he did not do this time.

?It is just a wonderful country, you have to use an altogether different palette of colours then what you would use in a northern country,? he said. ?It took a little while to get that and you are overwhelmed by the sky and particularly the architecture.

?I think I went through three stages here and the first was the architectural stage, to see buildings like this you don?t see anywhere else in the world ? the brightness of the sky with the white of the buildings.

Then I went through a new development and in trying to capture the sky, I became really impressed by the transit system.

?So I have done a whole series of ferry stations and it?s really something. I think in many places where you go there are unsung heroes and the unsung heroes are those that run the transit systems.

?To that element that would usually not be recorded in art ? I tried to put together some pictures of the stations and I hope to be able to do a little bit more of people, but basically that?s what I work in ? classical realism.

?I am pleased with everything that we have done here because by using a new palette I had to develop new skills.?

He said although the couple work together, his wife has a completely different style from his. ?We sort of bounce off or we have dialogue with each other,? said Mr. Steinhauser.

Mrs. Hinrichs chose to work on paper with pastel and acrylic.

?I do a lot of figurative work at home from the model,? she said. ?Like old family photographs and that sort of thing.

?Here I have been evolving from the same sort of thing and I have been so influenced by the architecture, the land and the sea. Gradually people are creeping back into my pictures and I now have some good representations of people plus specific details of the Bermudian environment.

?I?m really interested in the colours of all the houses and even some of the old walls that are peeling. I really find that fascinating and they are lovely backgrounds for some of the figures.

?I have done quite a range of work through the process of being here.?

She said she had been to Bermuda many years ago as a tourist, but returning as an artist has she a totally new light on the Island. ?Coming in this capacity has been a really wonderful opportunity to see it in a different way,? said Mrs. Hinrichs. ?And to be more observant.

?I am hoping that our show will be interesting, because our work will be quite different ? lots of different styles.?

She said she has completed three pastels of St. George?s Harbour.

?They are realistic, but they have a slightly whimsical style to them too,? she said.

?And also I have done some slightly more abstract pieces of houses rising up from the harbour and then some quite representational ones around Buckingham where we are living.?

She said much of the inspiration has come from living in the St. George?s.

?It has been being part of this old town and living in this 1750 building that has been inspirational too,? she said. ?I think particularly for artists, the play of light on the coloured walls is really fascinating, so I have done a couple of paintings right from the entrance way of this house.?

The Artists in Residence exhibition takes place at the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art in the Botanical Gardens from 5.30 p.m. until 7.30 p.m. on September 3 until September 9.