Rosemary Davis has gone potty.

No, she's not mad, but her clients are -- for the hand-painted flower pots which she has recently started creating as an antidote to a less than stellar golf game.

Naturally artistic, Mrs. Davis is no stranger to painting -- her work has been shown in local galleries, and her home is filled with her oils and water colours -- but Italian terra cotta is a new "canvas'' for her creativity, and no-one is more surprised than she is that her new-found hobby seems to have taken off.

"I paint to order, and as word has gotten around I've been getting special orders for wedding and special gifts,'' the clearly delighted Mrs. Davis says.

While modestly insisting that she is "just an amateur painter'', the quality of her work speaks for itself.

Eschewing the cutesy-pie and whimsical, Mrs. Davis focuses solely on flowers and birds commonly found in Bermuda: the passion flower, hibiscus, cardinal and blue birds among them.

"I will also do fish, but I do not do cats and dogs,'' she notes.

While the artist does repeat her subject matter, there is no standard interpretation. Each pot is unique -- something purchasers particularly value -- and always includes her "signature'': either a little red lady bug or a butterfly.

"I'm into those,'' she says, explaining that she has "borrowed'' the ladybug device from her 96-year-old mother, Ethel Adlard, because she thinks it is a nice family tradition to carry on.

"Mother was a very fine painter who particularly enjoyed doing flowers and fruits, and she always included a ladybug.

"Until two years ago she was still painting, so I guess I inherited my interest in art from her.'' Indeed, the many examples of Mrs. Adlard's work, proudly displayed in the Davis home, reveal an artist with a meticulous eye for detail.

Like all artists who first prepare their canvases before painting a subject, Mrs. Davis starts from an applied, solid colour background, which her husband David applies for her.

"He also seals both the inside and outside of the pot as well -- in the latter case after I have completed my work,'' Mrs. Davis says.

"This stops dampness and water damage from coming through.'' Nevertheless, the artist suggests that the finished pots are "too good'' to fill with soil but should, instead, serve as outer containers for potted plants.

While some pots have been placed in two commercial outlets, the artist prefers to fill commissioned orders.

"I had one order for a wedding. The requested design was very specific, and it was intended to hold the cedar sapling which the bride and groom traditionally plant at Bermuda weddings,'' she notes.

British-born Mrs. Davis has had a lifelong interest in "things artistic'', and is also an accomplished needlewoman, whose exquisitely embroidered subjects also fill her walls.

Some years ago she was a partner with a group of fellow artists whose handiwork was sold in a little shop in the grounds of `Springfield' in Somerset.

Formerly an executive secretary at The Bank of Bermuda for 20 years, Mrs.

Davis is determined to make the most of the freedom retirement brings, and when she is not painting her pots, she can be found beautifying the garden of the couple's Warwick home.