The Bermuda Society of Arts opens its 2005 season with the kind of challenge to its members that keeps its shows as lively as any in the Island. This show demanded black and white submissions, a demand not quite perfectly adhered to, but nearly enough.

The show opens with Shelly Hamill?s ?Snow on Trees (horizontal)? an eponymous winter scene fascinatingly cut into small squares that give the impression of looking out through a window.

Just opposite is her ?Snow on Trees (vertical)?, an even more intriguing but similar treatment and scene. However the vertical version is full of subtly interspersed discontinuities and partial repetitions that keep the viewer searching for an apparent order that may or may not be there.

James Cooper shows a series of six works not conforming to the black and white rule entitled ?Reminders? complete with texts. If there was a point it was hard to detect.

Mr. Cooper is also the video cameraman for a work by, or perhaps of, Jon Legere called ?Throwing Loquats at the Sun? in which an untidy and rather unwashed looking man collects loquats in a wool cap and then throws them towards the sun over a construction site.

The video wobbles on for seven minutes and thirty-four seconds of unsteady imaging. Mr. Legere is, however, obsessed with loquats and apart from the tedious video has several more rather less unconventional works depicting the presently abundant fruit.

Andrew Collett presents an exceptionally fine set of six photographs of sea and shore, two of them subtly enhancing the fluidity of the water with a just too long exposure time.

Another has an exposure so sharp that a burst of spray has the effect of a firework. These photographs easily demonstrate the fact that colour photography hasn?t and perhaps cannot supplant the values of black and white.

D. S. Caines has two interesting photographs, one of two firemen sitting at ease in front of a fire engine, apparently after the fire was extinguished, the other of a runner in the marathon running along the centre line with a bus, replete with passengers, following close behind.

How such a situation occurred amazes; How Mr. Caines managed to catch the event amazes still more.

Vanessa George?s two works, ?Beaded? and ?All Work and no Play? are executed in an exacting and spellbinding graphite technique that commands attention despite a disastrous ignorance of anatomy that seriously detracts from what might otherwise be extraordinary work.

Giles Campbell, whose work has steadily gained in quality and confidence, is not as at home in black and white as he is in colour. Perhaps his group in this show represents his first attempt at monochrome work.

The one outstanding work is ?Stormy Gas and Ice?, a favourite scene of his at the back of the Boaz Island gas station.

Mujib Swan must spend much time waiting for the perfect conditions for the photographs he has in mind. ?Bridge and Calm Waters? is so perfect that it almost induces a shiver. The botanical detail in ?veins? comes as something of a relief after the fantastic precision of his first work.

As a rule I find Al Seymour?s work a little tight, but not in this show. Here he is showing three charcoal portraits. On the angled wall where they are displayed the first is of the late Dr. E.F.Gordon and to my mind it is a remarkably good one, capturing his best qualities in a way that photographs so often failed to do.

The other two, one of a Second World War era pilot, the other of a dignified old gentleman of the Victorian era, are equally good.

Fiona Curren Lanzino?s set of six photographs of the hustle and glitter of New York are full of the character and congested zip of that city. They capture an atmosphere that colour photographs of the identical scenes would fail to achieve.

Chalkboard is not a medium frequently seen, but is perfectly suited to this show. The vivid imagination of Lindsey George makes perfect use of it.

The title of the three works is ?Frogfly? and that is exactly the subject. The tiny frogs are equipped with fly?s wings and are caught in a combination of fly and frog activities with sensitivity and humour.

I am usually so baffled by the varied eccentricities of Bruce Stuart that I have nothing to say about them. Here he is showing two nudes executed in spare, fluid lines of white acrylic on a black ground.

Anatomically satisfying they are simple, graceful and very pleasing. For this artist, whose taste for complexity is well known, this could represent a promising new departure.

This show has more interest than quality, but that is often the nature of a challenge. One of the great qualities of the Bermuda Society of Arts is that its members enjoy the challenges it presents and don?t shy away from them.

I will make a tentative suggestion for the future: have a show of figurative art. It should prove a valuable experience.