Written by Britain?s poet laureate in 1902, these words from his famous poem, ?Sea-Fever?, could just as easily have been written by American artist and Bermuda resident Dean Walker, who has been ?going down to the seas? again and again in preparation for his second solo exhibition, ?Ride the Waves?, which opens under the auspices of the Masterworks Foundation this evening.

An artist who enjoys portraying a variety of subjects, this time he has been happy to focus on the gallery?s preference for a themed show, and has chosen water as the focal point of his paintings ? hence the overall title: ?Ride the Waves?.

?No matter what the scene is, be it boats, little dories, dinghies, reflections in the water, or a full-blown ocean scene ? every painting has water in it,? he says.

In fact, Mr. Walker has always loved the sea, and he revels in the magnificent views of it which both his Bermuda residence and US cottage afford him. As an artist, he has explored just about every nook and cranny of the Island where water meets land ? quiet coves, beaches, and surf-splashed rocks ? and admits that portraying the ocean in all its moods is something he is good at.

Indeed, visitors to his newest exhibition will quickly note the vibrancy and lifelike quality of his paintings.

Not everyone can paint water well, or accurately capture its mood and movement (how many marine paintings have you seen where the water is lifeless, and boats appear to be sitting on, as opposed to in, the water?) ? but to Mr. Walker it is a medium of endless fascination, as is the magic of Bermuda?s light.

?Everybody talks about the light here,? he says. ?It is fabulous, tremendous light without pollution, and you don?t get that in many places. The only place in the United States is in the mountains at high altitudes, and you see that reflected in western (US) art. I got the same feeling when I came here.?

In addition to his fascination with capturing our legendary light, and the play of light in his paintings, Mr. Walker also aims to capture ?a mood? ? and, in terms of ocean scenes, the intensity and movement of water, all of which contribute to the dynamism of his work.

How the artist came to this point in his career is an interesting story. Following his graduation from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where he studied under master watercolorist Irving Shapiro, Mr. Walker spent 23 years as a graphic artist in the print media field. During that time he also painted water colours for 20 years, winning numerous awards and competitions in Chicago area art shows. Even so, he admits today that he was becoming disenchanted with his chosen medium when disaster struck.

?I had reached a stage where it seemed I had taken watercolours as far as I could, and it was getting a little boring to me. About that time I developed a detached retina in my left eye, but after three surgeries and intense therapies were unable to correct the problem I went blind in that eye. I noticed right way that I had problems with depth perception, so my watercolours were a lot tighter.?

When one door closes, another opens of course, and in Mr. Walker?s case he turned to pastels ? a medium he had not worked with since age 15 ? because this was a more tactile art form.

?Pastels just really took for me,? he says. ?I could lay my fingers right on the work, and I didn?t have to worry about the depth perception problem. It is a wonderful medium for me to work with, very tactile, and a wonderful feeling to be able to move your fingers across the board.?

Very much a novice initially, the artist soon learned from magazines and periodicals on pastels about the various types of surfaces to work on, including paper, board, masonite and canvas. He learned that the roughness, or ?tooth?, of a surface is important, since pastels are not dissimilar to chalk, and ?gripability? is key ? the more ?tooth? the greater the ability to add layers of colour without them coming off or becoming ?muddy?.

Through trial and error Mr. Walker also learned that blending pastels on a ground akin to sandpaper played havoc with his fingertips to the point that they bled, so today while he still prefers a heavy type of ?tooth?, he has adjusted his pastels and technique to allow more layering than rubbing, which has eliminated the problem and left him pleased with the results.

In fact, after 20 years of painting watercolours, the artist has no regrets about switching to the new medium. ?I like the texture pastel gives me that watercolour does not, that is why I am enjoying this media,? he says.

?Pastels are a much flatter medium than oils to work with, but with the grittier ground I am trying to achieve a more painted look so that people may have to guess whether my paintings are oils or pastels.

? lot of people don?t understand pastels. They are ground stone. It is the oldest medium in the world, and the only difference between pastels and oils is the binder.?

The same meticulous attention to deal which Mr. Walker puts into his paintings also extends to their framing, which he does himself. Because pastels can shed a little dust over time, his paintings are mounted in such a way that there is a gap between the art and the glass. Nevertheless, he recommends that owners unframe their paintings every three years, clean the glass, and reframe them. In Bermuda?s humid climate this is also a sound practice in terms of preservation. He also eschews mattes, preferring instead the dramatic impact that single framing brings to his work.