Once again, the Dockyard group has come to the rescue of those who long for an art show that forgets, just for a moment, the scenic splendours of Bermuda.

This time, we are given the splendours of the human body -- quite a departure for Bermuda, and a most refreshing one at that.

Is it mere coincidence that during his visit here last year, Royal Society of British Artists president Peter Peterson, voiced his conviction that Bermuda's artists needed to concentrate on drawing? Whatever the reason behind the decision to mount a theme show featuring the nude, the Dockyard committee is to be congratulated for forging ahead with this innovative show.

Part of its appeal lies in the fact that so many young artists have exhibited their work, several of them returning to the artistic fray fresh from the success of their ground-breaking Mosaics show last summer.

The big surprise of the show is the portfolio of eight studies from Diana Amos, who reveals here an entirely new and richly satisfying facet of her art.

The two centre walls devoted to her work feature figures worked in charcoal, pencil, watercolour, pastel and oil, a testament to her versatility and considerable technical abilities in all these media.

Her Nude on Blue, worked in oils, shows a reclining female where the muscular strength of the back is softened by the golden sheen of the skin tones. There is an innate sense of line, superbly realised in her Reclining Nude, drawn in charcoal, and her study of Seated Man, where the sitter's athleticism is powerfully portrayed through the usually gentler medium of watercolour. But it is her pastel study of a baby, tenderly drawn and capturing perfectly that air of luxurious abandon, with arms awry and chubby foot suspended in mid-air that suggests an artist of far greater sensibility than perhaps many of us had realised.

Henry Ward's is the most obvious new talent in this show, with two charcoal drawings, presumably intended as a pair, of reclining males, focusing on the upper halves of the torso, where a tousled head cradled in muscular arms creates a paradoxical sense of peace.

Sacha Baptiste makes a dramatic entry on our art scene with her large and uncompromising study of a solid-trunked female torso. Entitled, rather unnecessarily, as Colour Study this red body swathed in deep green shadow, shouts for attention. It is beautifully drawn and indicates real promise.

There is an impressive sculpture entitled Twist of Fate from Stephanie Wahl in smooth, black soap-stone, dipicting a truncated female torso that is multi-dimensional both in its technical application and aesthetic comment.

Daniel Dempster has forsaken his beloved water studies to concentrate, with considerable success, on two nude studies that reveal a basic grasp of draughtsmanship.

Most of us are familiar with Chesley Trott's wonderful cedar abstractions that celebrate the human form, but there is also an enchanting and graceful bronze sculpture of a Reclining Figure that explores the contradictions of form and space within a small but equally valid scale.

There is theatrical sensuality in Paul Doughty's delightful Preparing for the Dance. Executed in gouache on paper, this picture of two dancing girls is sparsely drawn, their pale skins and dark eyes increasing the impact of rich gold decoration in their jewellery and hair, an Eastern setting emphasised in the star-studded tiled floor and echoed in a mysterious pair of peacocks lurking in the background. A strange but compelling composition from an artist who usually prefers sculpture to portray the human body.

Britany Wivell's oil painting of a woman, her head haloed with long blond hair, flung back in an attitude of either extreme boredom, but more probably, exhaustion, is also a most powerful work from a promising young artist.

Michael Hutley, one of our few established artists who regularly exhibits nude studies, surpasses himself in this show with two superb male figures, drawn in charcoal, that underline his ability to capture a sense of movement, strength and grace.

It is good to see Emma Mitchell back in action with two conte crayon and pen and ink studies of long-legged females, sparingly delineated in blue and brimming with Isadora Duncanesque grace.

Another young artist, Jason Semos has some distinctive work on show, An Artist's Studio, which depicts a figure with head resting down in arms that also grasp her drawn-up knees, being particularly striking.

There is great promise, too, in Tracy Harris's three pictures, especially her powerful charcoal depiction of the torso of `David'.

Victoria Brenner's three African-motif batiks are highly effective, her Barely Beaded beautifully composed and rich with terracotta and magenta hues.

PATRICIA CALNAN LIFE DRAWING by Michael Hutley, an exhibit in The Nude, currently on show at The Arts Centre at Dockyard.