At the end of two winding and grassy lanes in Somerset ? are two Plein Air artists who will be showing their paintings at the Bermuda Society of Arts on Friday.

Jonah Jones and Chris Marson are doing a two-man show, which features Mr. Jones? oils and Mr. Marson?s watercolours. The pair, who are prolific artists, have done an extraordinary amount of work over the past year.

Mr. Jones?, who was initially a chef, takes a deeper look at yachts and other floating vessels in his work. His paintings are vibrant and full of the aquatic life surrounding the Island.

And Mr. Marson has captured Bermudian architecture, churches, islets and sea life in his paintings.

They paint together with a group of other artists and sometimes on their own. Mr. Marson?s work is done exclusively on location and some of Mr. Jones? work is painted on location.

Mr. Marson, a former graphic designer, said he has been painting for as long as he can remember.

?When other children were running around, I was sitting there sketching something,? Mr. Marson said, ?I couldn?t have been more than four.

?But painting watercolours, which is primarily what I do now, I have been doing it for about 15 or 16 years. Watercolours is one of those mediums, which fights back. Every now and then I would paint in acrylics, but then I would buy some watercolours and paint with them again. Then I?d throw everything away and buy some watercolours again. One day it just clicked and I have been doing it ever since.?

Mr. Marson said his paintings are representational and he always paints on location. ?Right from the start,? he said, ?When I say representational ? I can go back and look and it doesn?t look anything like I have painted, but the painting works.

?The whole idea is not to try to recreate exactly what was there, but you are trying to interpret or tell a story. There is something in there that you respond to and that is what you are painting and that is what you are making the art from. I don?t analyse it too much ? it is too scary.

?So I concentrate on the technical side. For me it is all about communication. I?ll do a painting and I put it up on a wall and it communicates something and they are seeing something in it that I had no idea was there.

?But it is obviously there because they see it and the painting is communicating and they are enjoying it.?

They went all around the Island to capture the images that they have painted. ?I travel more and I have painted Spanish Point, Waterville, quite a few private homes with Plein Air, some of these places you wouldn?t even know are there,? said Mr. Marson. ?Two of the paintings are of Ely?s Harbour and St. Anne?s Church.

?I was coming by the church and the way that the light was hitting it I just had to stop. I was chased by a dog on the first day and I had to come back to finish it. Persistence is everything.

?I have been doing this for years, but all the time I have been on location I don?t think that I have had anybody give me a hard time, but I?ve had a lot of people come and visit or talk to me while I am painting.

?I was once painting Astwood Cove and I saw this person way down the beach ? they must have come about half a mile to see what I was doing. She was a German tourist and she suddenly appeared next to me. I was almost finished the painting and I figured that anyone who has gone through that much trouble ? I just gave her the painting.

?I was painting at lunch time ? I was still working. There was another time when I was painting one of the beaches and a couple on their honeymoon kept getting closer and closer.

?They were in it and I asked were they on honeymoon and I said, look you might as well take it. I think it is good for Bermuda ? the stories that they will tell when they get back.?

Before Mr. Marson retired he also painted everyday on the ferry. ?I have sketch books at home of drawings on the ferry,? he said, ?If you travelled on the ferry quite regularly than you were going to get drawn.?

In the spring the pair had gone to Wyoming to do an intensive ten-day course.

?When we were in the restaurants in the evening, Chris would pull out his mobile watercolour holder and do paintings of people,? said Mr. Jones.

Mr. Marson added: ?You also get really good service because all the wait staff want to know what you are doing.?

Mr. Marson said he studied fine arts back in the 60?s. He said it was a time when people were running around inflating balloons. ?My teacher walked into the class and said ?create? and walked out again,? he said, ?He came back four weeks later, by which time there were 17 of us left, which was the objective of the exercise.

?Part of his attitude was that when you left there, no one was going to tell you what to paint or draw, but the whole idea was to teach you the fundamentals of art and how to draw. The whole period was about expressing yourself.?

Making a comparison with Mr. Marson?s teacher, Mr. Jones said in the United Kingdom they had a policy not to teach the students how to spell. ?The philosophy was that if you read enough then you would know how to spell,? he said, ?But as a result I can?t spell now. You need the tools, you need to know how to draw before you go on. Otherwise it is an exercise in self-indulgence.?

Mr. Marson said you get the basic tools by doing an awful lot of paintings. ?I think Jonah is probably more prolific than me,? he said.

Mr. Jones said that he thought they both had a pretty solid work ethic and said he gained his while working as a chef. ?You have to have a solid work ethic to remain in that environment and I have applied that to the painting as well,? he said, ?But a lot of people like the idea of being an artist ? there is a lot of thought time ? people like the lifestyle, but I think good artists are the people who really push themselves.

?They are always trying to improve on their craft ? you can?t just spend an hour on the weekends.?

Mr. Marson said for him watercolours are a truism.

?I can paint 2,000 paintings and then paint one good one,? he said, ?I always say, ?my next painting is going to be a good one?. That is my general rule of thumb. But I am not setting out to make a piece of art, I am there to explore to see if it works and if I have a plan and it doesn?t work out I am going to see if I can fix it. If I fail then it is the next one and that is the only way you grow.?

Mr. Jones said there was always room for improvement in the craft. ?I think if you start thinking, ?oh, that is great? than you never improve your craft,? he said, ?Or you get lazy, or sloppy, or you use certain tricks that will impress people, but it is about the long journey.

?Where do you want to be five years down the road.?

Mr. Jones said although as artists they really don?t work to deadline unless they have a show, as Plein Air artists they are usually working with the constraints of changing light.

?You have two to three hours to try to nail the essence of what you want from that location,? he said.

Mr. Jones said he does not always work on location and he uses a combination of smaller studies and photography because he paints really large pieces. ?I use the studies for information or I may use them as composites for larger pieces. In the show there will be the studies, which I had and then thought this can be used on a larger scale,? he said.

?I can work this into larger and often the larger thing will end up radically different ? I think I will change the sky or move a tree. A little stage management goes on.?

Mr. Jones said that his exhibition will feature an eclectic mix of paintings from Kings Point, France, Wyoming and sail boats.

?I see it every day on the way to the studio and it has meaning to me as I take the dogs out there,? he said. They both feel the need to have a show to exhibit their collections.

?We were just talking and we said we should do a show together,? said Mr. Marson. Mr. Jones had already booked City Hall because he wanted to do some really big works and felt it had the space to accommodate his art.

?Chris came up with the idea of oil and water,? he said. ?It is nice to see all your work in one place in a sort of cohesive fashion especially with having my studio and website as you paint they go. You don?t ever see it or enjoy it.?

?I started showing work in the mid-nineties and I had a one man show at the Arts Society in the Edinburgh Gallery, which was very successful and since then I have shown in other galleries. ?I think it is very important for things like the Arts Centre and the Art Society to remain open because they are charities and they do a really good job.

?Chris and I are more involved with the Dockyard Arts Centre, I have a studio there and Chris is on the management committee. I think we are all like a big family. They come up to our shows and we go down to theirs.?

Oil and Water opens at 5.30 p.m. on October 1 at the Bermuda Society of Arts in City Hall. The exhibition will remain on show until October 22.