Gallery until December 3.

*** Almost entirely self-taught, Bruce Stuart has acquired a well-earned reputation as an artist with a preservationist interest in painting and recording the unique Bermudian architecture that seems to be in increasing danger of disappearing these days.

His latest show at the Windjammer Gallery, called In A Bermudian Light, could therefore have just as easily been titled In A New Light, as it captures that part of the Island's heritage in a surer and sometimes masterful manner and also represents new forays in terms of both technique and subject matter.

As with most new efforts, though, the results in this case are twofold: Mr.

Stuart has succeeded in creating bolder, more painterly paintings, but has also failed, unfortunately, to achieve a similar degree of artistry in his experimental works, particularly the assortment of underwater scenes.

It is, of course, with a great deal of trepidation that any responsible critic gives a thumbs down to the experimental ventures of established artists, who should always be encouraged to challenge and explore, to test their talents to the limit. In any case, Mr. Stuart should be applauded for taking his fixation with natural Bermudian light to a new height -- or, rather, to a new depth, in the case of his subaquatic studies. But that, too, is part of the problem. For unless Mr. Stuart has executed these paintings -- plastic, uninspired studies of the deep and its inhabitants -- in full underwater gear, he must inevitably have worked from second-hand material, material that can never compare to his own eye. And the results show it.

Consequently, it is better to focus on the artist's successes -- and there are quite a few in this show. Having almost entirely abandoned the flat, rather amateurish drawings in paint that composed a significant portion of his previous work, Mr. Stuart has achieved in such paintings as "Cedar Gate'' and "The Washroom'' a maturity of style and surety of technique that marks a not insignificant turning point in his artistic development.

The most striking of these "newly'' executed works is a warm, very inviting study of the (soon-to-be-demolished?) Island Coffee Company, a lovely 19th-century commercial building that is clearly Bermudian in design but also has a curiously Oriental air. More important, it is the painting that more than any other in the show reflects a newly developed trust in Mr. Stuart of his own skills as a painter.

Of course, the richly detailed miniatures that Mr. Stuart did so well in the past also seem to have gotten better. Unfortunately, many of the these small gems -- "Springfield Buttery'' and "Blue House with Banana Trees'' are just two of the stand-outs -- are almost completely overwhelmed by their much-too-large, gold-coloured frames. In fact, poor framing mars a number of the works, many of which come perilously close to garishness on their own.

But framing, of course, is neither here nor there in terms of Mr. Stuart's talent, which is considerable and which shows ever greater signs of improving.

Not insignificantly, the least successful of the artist's paintings are those in which he appears to have gone off on tangents, tangents that he probably recognises as unconductive to his talents and/or interests. As Mr. Stuart himself said in the introduction to 1992's The Art of Bruce Stuart: "People ask me: `Aren't you worried that you will run out of things to paint? It used to concern me... (but) I know that I will never run out of material now. As I change, I see the same scene in new and different ways.'' Well-executed and important to Bermuda's heritage, those "same scenes in new and different ways'' are what Mr. Stuart should probably stick to.

Danny Sinopoli IN A BERMUDIAN LIGHT -- Bruce Stuart's show is on at the Windjammer Gallery.