rtist Bruce Stuart is taking us on a walk down memory lane with his current exhibition. The exhibition, which opens this evening at the Masterworks Gallery in the Botanical Gardens, is a 25-year retrospective of his work. It will feature work of his little Bermuda cottages, which he remains famous for, through to more of his modern day work as he has grown and changed. Some of the work will be his brass sculptures, newspaper paintings, original paintings, foil pieces, and a 22-foot piece.

?I got into the architecture and figures, which I liked doing and then I got more into the abstract,? he said. ?I have recent additions which will also be in the show. There are also photographs in the show, like my Geisha Girl.

?I also have the portrait series, which kind of came along the way.?

Mr. Stuart said there were photographs, which had been inspired by travelling toy salesmen in Mexico.

?They move from town to town, seven days a week, they set up this shop and this is their life,? he said.

?There are children playing under the table and I was just blown away by the piles of stuff. This is sort of the inspiration for the big piece.?

He also has a night-time series.

?If you change the colour of an object, you change its identity. Usually you see the black trees against the night sky, but I reversed the process.? Of some of the sculptures he said he wanted them to have natural elements as well as obscure elements.

?It is like having a piece of driftwood painted like a tree, rather than just a branch. Now it all floats in ? I am playing with negative space, just to give it a mix of funky play.? He also has clay sculptures from his first classes in San Miguel, in 1996.

?When I came back I went up and watched Chesley (Trott) doing the bronze and I wanted to do that.? A piece that very much represents who Mr. Stuart was and who he has become was initially called The Factory.

?I called it that because I was working on it. Then I called it The Reef, because what I found, but now with the legs on it, it is kind of like Oceanus, because she was born out of the sea. When you are walking along you find glass and when I kneeled down I saw this kind of blue piece on top of a white piece.

?I thought, how does that just happen to be there. It was a man driving and I had a front of a car and I thought it just had to go there. It was amazing. I also found a bicycle, which is now a part of the wreck on the reef. I also put a CD in there, which creates a sea-like feel.

?It has taken about six months because it kept building and building.

?I want to push art as far as possible, because that is the whole object of it. I feel if you don?t put everything into is, then it?s half hearted and people can see that.?

The exhibition is in both Masterworks? Rose Garden Gallery and The West Wing. Opening hours are 5.30-7 p.m. on April 1. The exhibition closes on April 13.