Karen Kell is the latest artist to be featured in the Masterworks Foundation?s ?Artists Up Front...Street? series, and when her first solo exhibition opens at the Bermuda House Lane gallery this weekend it will mark an important milestone in her development, for it is only since coming to Bermuda that she has found time to paint full time.

Miss Kell?s interest in art goes back to her childhood when she was ?always creating things?.

?I would be in a world of my own making something very big or very small, and would get very excited about an idea and spend days working on it,? she says. ?The pattern seems to follow through to this day, as my paintings are large and small, but rarely anything in between.?

In her native Britain, Miss Kell completed a variety of art courses, including one in sculpture at St. Martin?s in London, and if there is one term that describes this artist it is ?dogged determination? ? she spent two years developing the prototype of a soft-edged chair which now reposes at a British university awaiting her eventual return to complete it for mass production.

?It became an obsession, and I spent all my free time and savings on it. I would say I have a love/hate relationship with the chair now because it took so much out of me,? she says.

But ?I met some great creative people in those two years, and had a lot of funny experiences,? she says. I even had an offer for a film to be made about the experience, which I might take up one day.?

Meanwhile, what Miss Kell learned in creating her prototype chair has helped in creating the mold for her candle tree sculpture, six examples of which will be seen in her upcoming exhibition.

Her enthusiasm for painting, which the artist says is new to her, sprang from last year?s success in winning the adult category of the Masterworks competition, ?Bermuda ? A Place to Grow?.

?It was from that that Masterworks offered me the chance to have my first exhibition,? she says. ?I was thrilled, and felt very lucky to have the opportunity. Since then I?ve really thrown myself into painting and making sculptures. It feels natural for me to paint, and I wonder why I didn?t do so much of it before now.?

Miss Kell?s favourite artists are the surrealists, particularly Salvador Dali, all of whom fuel her inspiration for the future.

?I hope to go down that path after the exhibition, when I have more time to think about developing a style and ideas for painting,? she says. ?This year I have created a variety of paintings from realistic Bermuda water scenes to water reflection and shadow studies.?

The artist also reveals ?a flair for portraits?, examples of which will also be included in her exhibition.

Viewers can also expect to see the results of Miss Kell?s experiments with technique and media, expressed as ?samples of watercolour, oil and acrylic?.

?Overall, I will have more than 27 paintings on the wall, including some sets, and I will also have a portfolio of unframed paintings, mostly in watercolour,? she says.

?There is no theme to my exhibition, but I can say that (all of my work) is very colourful, and inspired by Bermuda?s beauty. All in all, I am very excited about the show, and can?t wait for the opening.?

Miss Kell?s exhibition opens on Friday, May 14 and will continue through May 27. For further information see today?s Bermuda Calendar.