The ACE Foundation is currently hosting an exhibition of sand paintings from Senegal entitled, ?The Sands of Senegal?.

The exhibition is an effort by Operation Green Light to raise funds on behalf of Habitat Of Humanity, but more than that, it is an effort to help at-risk youths of Bermuda by challenging them to participate in hands-on work with such organisations as Habitat Of Humanity.

My initial response to the exhibition is, that overall, there is a sameness to the work, not only colour-wise, but also theme-wise.

The sameness is, in part due to the use in all the paintings of the same coloured sands that are collected from various locations in Senegal.

There is also a sameness in that the artists make use of just a few themes, such as village life, African animals, masks and people at work, that are repeated many times throughout the exhibition. Additionally, most of the paintings are of similar size and shape.

Despite this, the exhibition is worth viewing, especially up-close, for the skilful rendering of details, most especially that of line and the subtle gradations of tone, are most apparent from that viewpoint.

Additionally, none of these paintings are large, so close viewing is almost a necessity. Keep in mind also that the artists that made these paintings are working under certain limitations, one being their materials.

Sand is not all that easy to use as a painting material for generally the granular quality of sand makes for a fairly crude, coarse paint, yet these artists apply it to plywood with considerable skill.

It is not practical to apply sand paint with a brush, although possibly a brush was utilised in applying the underlying glue that fixed the sand to a particular local within the painting.

The suggestion is that the sand is actually applied by hand and then worked with ones fingers to accomplish the gradations and linear details.

These paintings were made for the tourist trade. The brochure that accompanies the exhibition says so.

Indeed, it is possible for one to actually visit the ?art factory? in Dakar where the works are produced and watch the artists at work making these and similar paintings. Does this fact then, make these works of lesser value in our thinking? We often hear of tourist art referred to in disparaging terms, but is it really that bad?

When I travel, I often buy art that can, I suppose, be classified as tourist art, however, I try to select work that appears to be more than just mass-produced.

I do look for skill and sensitivity in the making of the work. What I am trying to say is that just because these works were made for the tourist trade, does not automatically make them of lesser value.

In the 18th Century, when young gentlemen made the grand tour that took them to Italy and especially the city of Venice, some purchased paintings by Francesco Guardi as a souvenir of their tour.

Today, many of these paintings grace the walls of some of our best known art museums, but the original intent of the artist was to produce art for the tourist trade.

Certainly for visitors to Senegal, these sand paintings make a unique souvenir, for in addition to buying a work of art by a Senegalese artist, the material used in their production is the actual earth of Senegal.

Although the exhibition brochure, in giving a brief history of sand art in Senegal, names a few of the artists from the 1970s who pioneered the development of this art form, all the artists in this exhibition are quite anonymous.

Some of these paintings appear to be signed by someone named Guis or sometimes Guis Guis. This is not the name of an artist, however. It is the name of the gallery where the work is sold in Dakar.

The anonymity of these works brings to mind the thinking of Soetsu Yanagi, the Japanese founder of the the Folk Craft Museum in Tokyo, who also considered in his writings, the anonymity of the country potters of Japan and Korea.

He thought that the repetition of work by craftsmen who were unknown and anonymous brought about a total disengagement of self. This allowed a certain freedom in the execution of their tasks, for there was little concern for personal ambition.

Could something similar be going on with these Senegalese artists, who in their anonymity are doing their work without regard to their own reputation or ambition?

Certain paintings in this exhibition stand out as being better than others. Some paintings are more successful in the placement of elements within the rectangular format, as well as in the actual skill displayed in rendering sand/paint.

This exhibition requires a commitment of time in order to garner the subtle beauties within each painting but in the end, it will be worth it. The exhibition continues until November 9, 2006.