Mauritian-born Alice Coutet will be making her debut as the latest up-and-coming artist to be included in the Masterworks Foundation?s Artists Up Front... Street series.

Her show opens to the public in the Bermuda House Lane gallery on Saturday, and continues through April 29.

Her paintings will be a mixture of realism and abstracts, and her medium is acrylics and oils on canvas.

Her interest in art goes back to her childhood, when she says she was ?always drawing things, sticking things down, and making masks for myself and my brother and sisters?.

Her family moved to England when she was very young, where her talent as a budding artist was encouraged and nurtured. At ages 16 and 18, she achieved the highest grades in her art examinations.

Her paintings were also shown at a Mauritian art exhibition in London at the Mauritius High Commission?s charity ball.

Mrs. Coutet completed the first year of a design course at university before moving here with her husband-to-be in 2001. For a time she was a volunteer at the Masterworks Gallery, which ultimately led to her first solo exhibition with the organisation.

Then, as now, she painted and photographed in her spare time. She also took first prize in the Under 21 category of a Masterworks ?Festival by the Sea? competition.

She plans to enter a similar one this year, and aims to win the ?People?s Choice? award.

Mrs. Coutet, who was married in 2003, loves her new Island home, and as an artist says she never tires of admiring its scenery.

?It is amazing and magical,? she says. ?You never stop painting it. There are so many things, and the light is also amazing.?

She does not like landscapes but has ?a thing for trees?.

?In Bermuda, there are so many you just can?t get away from them,? she smiles.

Mrs. Coutet has been preparing for this exhibition for six months, and describes her abstracts as ?very bright?.

Her ultimate goal is to become a full time artist some day, but says that for the foreseeable future she is ?really very happy? working as an underwriting assistant in the offshore insurance industry and painting on weekends.