The much venerated Bermuda onion has taken on yet another starring role -- thanks to the exhilarating paintbrush of artist Elizabeth Mulderig.

Her latest exhibition, which kicks off Masterworks' annual `Artists Up Front Street' art shows, features a series of Bermuda's historical personages, all depicted as -- yes! -- onions.

"It's fun, and it's meant to be fun,'' she exclaims and, indeed, there is a strong satiric slant to her comic views of the selected worthies.

These range from the splendidly sartorial sailor, Juan de Bermudez, nonchalantly letting loose a wild hog (thus crediting Bermuda's nomenclator with provisioning future island castaways with sustaining food); the romantic Irish poet Tom Moore; heroes of Cup Match classics; the `rebel' Princess Louise who, toward the end of the 19th century, helped put Bermuda on the tourist map when she spent the winter season here; and there is a delightful picture of a rather small `onion' who toppled, rather like Alice, down a deep hole -- and discovered the Crystal Caves.

Beside the fun, however, there is a more serious aspect to her exhibition: "I really set out to do a group of paintings that would reflect the Island's heritage for Bermuda's children -- mainly because when I was at school, we never studied any Bermuda history.

"Masterworks,'' she adds, "is very heavily involved in pursuing art education programmes and I thought that these pictures would provide the perfect vehicle to advance that. I see them as a sort of travelling art show going around the schools and, perhaps, serving the double function of teaching both art and history. I feel it would be a good way to help bring alive some aspects of Bermuda's history.'' To that end, she has donated all 15 oil paintings to Masterworks for use in their on-going mission of taking art into Bermuda's schools.

"I am speechless,'' says Masterworks' Tom Butterfield. "We have never been given anything like this in the ten years we have been operating.'' He points out that the pictures could be reproduced as prints or even incorporated in book form: "Because of the nature of the various ideas pursued by Betsy and which cover a very wide range of topics from sport to capital punishment, they can be used as the basis for all kinds of studies. They raise all sorts of subjects -- for instance, the idea that Gina Swainson could go off and become `queen of the world' -- so, in that sense, I think these pictures also reinforce the idea that Bermuda does offer chances to people.'' Agreeing that the Island sees itself as a friendly community, Mr. Butterfield feels that her picture of Johnny Barnes -- who, from the Foot of the Lane roundabout, bestows `good morning' waves to commuters as they enter Hamilton each day -- epitomises that tradition of friendliness.

"Similarly, Yeaton Outerbridge and his sherry peppers represent something that is culturally `ours' -- and we could also say the same for Bermuda's lunch wagons. So we're looking at some wide themes here which, in turn, can act as a springboard for interpreting other topics and opening up other avenues of thought. I believe these very delightful `onion-heads' can help focus our historic unity as Bermudians.'' Work on the series has taken Ms Mulderig between 18 months and two years to complete. She reveals that her inspiration came from a 16th century Italian artist called Archimboldo who, rather surprisingly for the times, perhaps, painted portraits of people with vegetable heads.

"The king of the time apparently loved his work, so he became a very popular painter. Recently, there has been a resurgence of his work in New York, so when I saw a few of them on show, I immediately began thinking about Bermuda onions! And the more I thought about it, the more I like the idea of highlighting some of us `onions'! As a result,'' she adds, "I seem to have been surrounded by bunches of onions -- and the odour of onions -- for quite some time now. I decided to put the pictures in gold frames to highlight the sense of satire and I would have liked velvet surrounds to achieve a real `over the top' effect -- but velvet doesn't wear well in this humid climate!'' Besides this exhibit, Ms Mulderig will shortly be revealing her eye-catching murals for Hamilton's Surf Club, due to open shortly.

Elbow Beach Hotel, which has taken over the former Pier 6 venue on Front Street, commissioned three Bermuda-themed works for their new city venue.

"Bill Shoaf, the manager, approached me for a set of pictures, the first of which is a pizza kitchen, basically run by animals -- so we have rabbits as waiters, bluebirds as chefs and so on.'' The other two works highlight Bermuda's `limbo' entertainment, and beach life.

Again, the artist's humour finds pigs dancing in bikinis, sunbathers downing cans of `burr', giant seahorses, porpoises -- and even her own dog Gus, gracefully skimming the waves on a surfboard.

Elizabeth Mulderig's `Onion' portraits are on view at the Masterworks Gallery on Bermuda House Lane, Front Street, through April 2.