Hilary Thorpe knew nothing of Bermuda until Elspeth Brewin, a member of the Masterworks Foundation board, visited her exhibition in the Isle of Wight and bought a painting. This evening, the British marine and landscape artist opens an exhibition of her Bermuda paintings in Foyer Gallery of the Colonial Insurance building on Reid Street under the auspices of Masterworks, and even after months of being its artist-in-residence, she cannot quite believe her luck.

“I owe it all to Elspeth,” Ms Thorpe says. “After she visited my exhibition and bought a painting she contacted me later on and asked if I had thought about doing a residency in Bermuda. I’d never heard about it, so she gave me all the details, and I looked on the web site and decided it really appealed to me, so I put together an application and here I am!”

Not surprisingly, as a former sailing instructor living on the Isle of Wight in England, Ms Thorpe has a special affinity for boats and the sea, both of which figure heavily in her local paintings. She loves contrast and vibrant colours, and these too are beautifully captured in her work.

“My painting is all about being outdoors, on the spot, and capturing the atmosphere, so I always paint on location,” she says.

Indeed, her deep tan confirms the many hours she has spent in the Bermuda sunshine during her time here, but Ms Thorpe is not just a “fair weather” artist. As someone who continues to travel widely in England and Europe in her own motor caravan, she has learned to work in all winds and weathers, and Bermuda’s capricious storms and squalls were no exception. In fact, they added to the drama of her work.

“I used to prefer bright stormy conditions but since I have been doing painting professionally I can’t be so picky about the weather,” she says.

Citing the South Shore as one example, the artist recalls a gusty, squally day when she was heading for Spittal Pond, and as she got off the bus she briefly wondered what she was doing there — until she discovered a huge cave in which she could shelter and paint quite happily as the prevailing weather whipped up the ocean and smashed it onto the rocks in front of her. The resultant paintings are both striking and beautiful.

Ms Thorpe’s medium is acrylics which she applies with a palette knife on heavy water colour paper, and she works very quickly. Indeed, an indication of just how quickly is evidenced by a series of little paintings or “snapshots” of scenes she captured while riding the ferry one day.

In fact, it is this modus operandi which allows her to capture the essence of the moment and give her work an attractive spontaneity.

“You have to make very quick decisions about what you are going to paint, and then you have to take in enough information to whip it out with a palette knife, “Ms Thorpe says. “Everything I do is with a palette knife. Ninety percent of the time I am working on location, painting as it happens. If you take too many pictures and work from them you lose the atmosphere of the moment,” she says.

The artist’s extensive background in sailing means that any painting in which boats are featured are perfectly accurate — to the delight of the many sailors who have viewed and purchased them.

“When I paint boats I understand exactly what happens, and it makes a difference,” she says. “Sailors who buy pictures of boats want them to be accurate, and I know what the shape and colour of a specific boat should be. It is quite interesting.”

Hard though it may be to believe, Ms Thorpe came late to her career as a professional painter. Having completed a year-long art course, she found herself so drawn to the outdoors that she decided to concentrate on sailing, and wound up in Cowes on the Isle of Wight instructing beginners. Because the work was seasonal, she also pursued a variety of artistic avenues, eventually deciding to study at the West Surrey College of Art and Design. The three-year course included instruction in painting and colour,and it was there that Ms Thorpe learned to paint in acrylics with a palette knife.

“Suddenly, a light bulb came on in my head,” she recalls. “I had tried pastels, water colours and other media, but they didn’t work for me. Acrylics gave me the vibrant colours, and my work is very much about colour, although a lot of it is blue because of the sea.”

Following graduation from Art College in 1990 with a degree in woven textiles, Ms Thorpe taught secondary education students for seven years, mostly on a part-time basis in order to pursue other artist-led activities. For a time she practised weaving and painting before finally deciding to become a professional, exhibiting artist.

In addition to her paintings, Ms Thorpe is creating sketch books of ‘towny things’ seen during her Bermuda sojourn, filling the pages with charming little drawings done while waiting for buses. These she regards as a permanent record “of the whole experience” of being here, and which may form the basis of a small show or talk at the local art centre in Newport, Isle of Wight.

In fact, travelling sketches are something Ms Thorpe she does wherever she goes, and tomorrow afternoon she will conduct a workshop in the Botanical Gardens from 1.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. during which participants will learn how to make a simple sketchbook of their own and sketch on location.

Unlike many visiting artists who rave about Bermuda’s light, Ms Thorpe says that while it “undoubtedly” influences colour, what she has noticed more is how quickly the angle of the sun has changed in the time she has been here, “which is very different to the Isle of Wight”.

Having spent a great deal of time in Italy, the artist also finds the contrast between that country’s buildings and ours “just remarkable”.

“Bermuda buildings are very pretty, and breathtaking with the white and the shadows, while in Italy they are fantastically decorated with trompe l’oeuil, and I kind of wonder what would happen if you did that to your buildings here. But what is important to me is finding contrasts, so they complement each other.”

For further information on the artist visit her website www.hilarythorpe.co.uk or e-mail hilary[AT]hilarythorpe.co.uk

* This evening’s opening reception for Ms Thorpe’s exhibition takes place in the Colonial Insurance Foyer Gallery, 35 Reid Street, beginning at 5.30 p.m.

* For further information on tomorrow’s sketchbook workshop 236-2950.