They're back! The `Growing' group of artists is once again mounting a mixed media exhibition.

Growing XII opens this weekend at the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard and, if past shows are an indicator, this too will be another outstanding collection.

Long-time friends and fellow artists Graham Foster, Jonah Jones, Sheilagh Head, Elmer Midgett III and Marion Watlington-Vorley will exhibit paintings as thematically diverse as their personalities.

Mr. Foster has created 12 acrylic paintings featuring expressionistic underwater scenes.

"I am trying to lighten my palette and simplify the subject matter, focusing on the interaction of shapes and colour," he says.

He will also include two sculptures combining steel and sharks teeth, which has been influenced by the shark tooth-edged weapons of the South Pacific.

Jonah Jones' collection of oils will include several subjects: vegetables, boats and water/reflection studies.

"There will be a set of location paintings of a squash field to record the changing season, surrounding vegetation and light, all painted from the same spot, and one of them after Fabian," he says.

In addition, he will exhibit a study of boats in Flatts.

"Its long-style composition reminded me of a jazz score with the bobbing boats, and all the primary colours and bouncing light, with the pink buoys and lines like staccato marks on a music sheet," the artist says.

Further inspiration from time spent in Flatts is captured in some water/reflection abstracts.

"It's like a stage set down there," Mr. Jones says of a favourite area. "You feel like you are on stage whilst painting. I intend to do some more of these in future on a massive scale."

Deep sea fishing in oily calm waters with flying fish skipping about also caught Mr. Jones' eye, as evidenced by several paintings.

Sheilagh Head's innovative oils will be a mixture of abstracts and realism. She sums up her approach to painting as "a belief that art should be life-enhancing".

"We seem to be caught in a time when the only measure of a picture's worth is that it should be innovative," she says. "My way of being innovative is to try to communicate my way of seeing the world. This not based on a passing fashion, but how I feel about the world in which we live. The making of a picture is a slow process for me, and my paintings are hopefully reflective of the way I feel about the subject more than an attempt to copy what is in front of me. I feel that art celebrates life, and I hope that my paintings will be seen in that context."

Elmer Midgett's canvases will also reflect the exhibition's title.

"In the true `Growing' spirit I am striking out again in a new direction," he says. "I have worked my way through landscapes, seascapes and odd exteriors, and am now experimenting with painting the subtle effects of light and shadow in a closed environment.

"My works, always immediately from life, attempt to capture the essence of another's living space and tell, in some degree, a story of the relationship between artist and benefactor in a style I call `natural surrealism'."

Dr. Marion Watlington-Vorley will again include two of her favourite themes: botanicals and subjects honouring her travels to Africa. Her works are executed in watercolours and acrylic.

Dr. Watlington-Vorley has been painting regularly for the past ten years, but rather than call herself an artist, she says that first and foremost she is a doctor who uses art as "the perfect antidote" to the demands of her profession.

"Through my art I enjoy a creative pursuit where all sense of time is lost," she says. "A friend once described my botanical paintings as `a child trying to find how many colours he sees in a field of grass before he knows the colour green'."

`Growing' exhibitions have taken place biennially for the past 24 years, and feature a rotating group of artists some of whom are part of the original line-up, while others, like Jonah Jones and Graham Foster were invited to join in 1999.

'Growing XII' opens to the public on Saturday, October 3 and continues through November 7. For those invited to attend Friday's opening reception who wish to travel to Dockyard by sea, the Coral Princess leaves Albouys Point at 5.30 p.m. returning from Dockyard at 8.15 p.m. The ride is complimentary, and there will be a cash bar on board. The capacity is 100, and boarding will be on a first come, first served basis.