he latest Bermudian artist on display at the Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation (KAF) was a hotel worker so quiet and humble that even his family didn't know he painted until the very end of his life.

An exhibit of the work of Leira Minors (1935-1994) goes on display on July 26 in the Elliot Gallery at KAF Jubilee Road in Devonshire. The exhibit was the brainchild of Leira Minors' oldest son, Du-Val Minors, and is KAF's first posthumous show.

Du-Val Minors recently told , his father secretly produced crates of artwork in a variety of mediums in his later life, and was as much a mystery to his family as to the outside world.

"None of us knew very much about my father," said Mr. Minors who is one of three sons including Desmond and Dyrone. "When he left home we were all very young. He married when he was in his twenties and left my mother, Nedra Cook, when he was about 30. He went away for a long time. I met him when he came back to Bermuda a few years ago. One night I was bartending with my uncle at Flavours Nightclub. Leira Minors came in and said to this young lady, 'that's my son' and then took off. I think he thought I was going to say something derogatory."

The next time Mr. Minors came into the bar, Du-Val Minors took him aside and said there were no hard feelings on his part.

"I told him I was past all that happened or didn't happen," Mr. Minors said. "We struck up a rapport from there, but the next time we really talked was when he was sick in the hospital."

At this time, Leira Minors who was then 60, telephoned Du-Val Minors and said he was in the hospital, and needed someone to check on his belongings in his house. Du-Val Minors began to visit his father regularly in the hospital and started to get to know him.

"Finally, I got to know he had this art," said Mr. Minors, "but I dismissed it. When I finally did get to see it I was totally floored. I was in awe."

Mr. Minors thought his father, who worked in the hotel industry and construction, was slightly embarrassed to be seen as a painter.

"I think a lot of times men have a tendency not to share things like that with other males," Mr. Minors said. "Also, our family was not that encouraging in terms of saying, 'you should pursue this as a career'."

"My mother didn't know anything about it either until we started to go through his things, after his death," said Du-Val Minors. "There was this great big, huge crate in his house. Today, we have around 60 to 80 pieces that he did, but we think we have lost about 20. I think the other pieces may have got spread out among other family members."

r. Du-Val Minors said when he and his mother started going through his art, they were "in awe".

"It is a treasure," he said. "When I saw it and started going through it I wondered why he kept all of it to himself."

For Du-Val Minors, the artwork is a map into his father's personality and inner-self.

"If everyone is sleeping I have a tendency to be a night-owl," said Du-Val Minors. "I will sit in the living room and just look at different pieces. Everyone who looks at it finds a favourite. There are several different themes. There are women, architecture, native people and botanicals, among others."

Mr. Minors was self-taught in art. He trained as a plumber, and no art background so far as anyone knows. He worked in a variety of mediums. Some paintings are done on limestone, others are on bits of wood or on ordinary canvas. His art showed not only a creative brain, but also a resourceful one. In one map of Bermuda, he used cancelled postage stamps, and in another floral print he took eggshells from the hotel kitchen and crushed them down to add a unique texture to the background.

"He was fussy about how he did things, or any presentation at all," said Mr. Minors. "He was one of those people that believed that we should always work.

"When he was working in the field doing construction he picked up bits of cedar, and saw something in that that he could use with his art. When he worked in the hotels he took eggshells from the kitchen for one series of paintings.

"I think he was gradually finding out who he was as a person. He once asked me how did I feel about being married and having a family. I said I liked it. He said it had never been for him. I don't blame him, because marriage can be hard work, and it isn't for everyone."

u-Val Minors' parents met in Bermuda. He said his mother is very artistic and likes to sing, and makes dresses and wedding gowns. She was far more outgoing than the shy Leira Minors.

"She was attracted to him because of his looks, but he couldn't dress," said Mr. Minors. "His nickname was Pretty Pants, because although he was a very quiet person, he would dress in these plaids, or bright colours. He would have an ascot tied around his neck.

"One day, he just skipped town. He wasn't a great father. He didn't have a great grasp on it. My mother and him never really got along."

Mr. Minors worked in hotels in the Catskills, in Florida and many other places in the United States. He travelled light between destinations, but always dragged along crates of his artwork.

Mr. Minors decided to set up an exhibition at KAF after working there as a bartender for the opening of several exhibits.

"I thought Kaleidoscope would be the perfect place," said Mr. Minors. "The people are very nice and the intent is good."

The exhibit opening will be on July 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. and runs until August 6. Mr. Minors hopes to bartend at the event despite the fact that it is his father's show.

"That is where my father saw life from, and so do I," said Mr. Minors.

"He was someone who respected hard work."

The show is being curated by Linda Weinraub who runs her own design firm in Bermuda and volunteers at KAF. She wrote the catalogue for the show.

Fiona Rodriguez-Roberts, director of KAF said the Leira Minors show would be the first show at Kaleidoscope where the artwork on display wouldn't be for sale. "We don't want to just be about living artists," said Ms Rodriguez-Roberts. "We want Kaleidoscope to be a community art gallery."

She said that Leira Minors' family are the keepers of his artistic legacy.

"It is their desire to share his art with the public, fulfilling a wish of the dying artist," she said. "Mr. Minors expressed regret at having never shown his work, to children in particular. He had hoped there was something of value to be gleaned from his efforts."

For more information email the gallery at kaleidoscopeartsfoundation@]logic.bm