Hamilton.

*** Three very different artists are currently showing their efforts in a combined exhibition at Heritage House.

Three, very different artists, three different mediums and three very different results.

Nicholas Silk uses gouache to good effect in capturing Bermuda's light. He paints tightly, cramming the canvas with detail in a naturalistic style.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. "Stockdale'', a small, intimate painting of a Bermuda back street, conjures up a wonderfully hot atmosphere, with a sky so blue it's almost black.

But his beach scenes don't seem natural. They have an almost fairy tale quality that I don't think is intended.

I also get the impression that Silk paints everything with a fine, single hair brush, even when painting large expanses of colour. This means that his work can sometimes look a little fiddly. He should learn to loosen up a bit.

Kathy Zuill paints in oils. I have never seen her work before but, if this collection is anything to go by, I'm not missing much.

There are about ten paintings here, a mix of floral studies and landscapes.

Let's have a look at the floral studies first. It's ironic that, when you think of a bouquet you think of something alive, bright, fresh and vivid, yet when you look at Zuill's paintings what you see is something drab, dull and dead.

The paintings are so overworked that the palette has turned to mud. It's almost as if the canvasses have been locked away in some damp attic for a couple of years, slowly being covered in dirt and mould -- perhaps that's where they should have stayed. I won't horrify you by revealing the sale price on Zuill's work.

At least with her landscape studies you get the impression that Zuill is actually outside, albeit on a very overcast day. But there is still a lack of basic draughtsmanship that cannot be covered up, regardless of how thickly she applies the paint. I don't know if Ms Zuill is a professional artist or not, but if she is she must be going pretty hungry.

Christopher Marson is about as different from Zuill as watercolour is to oil paint.

Clearly a painter who has mastered the medium, his landscapes are alive, confident, bold and fresh -- and generally cheaper than Zuill's work too.

Again his influence is the Bermudian landscape which he depicts in a free, sometimes almost abstract style. Good stuff.

One final gripe. Not all the paintings on show are numbered or match up to the price list. This is something that Heritage House should have and could have easily sorted out before the show opened. It's pretty sloppy.

Three different mediums, three different painters and three different results.

You should go along to Heritage House, just to see how it should and shouldn't be done.

GARETH FINIGHAN ARTTIST ART ART REVIEW REV