Walking off Front Street towards the Emporium Building I glance through the windows of the Desmond Fountain Gallery and see, suspended, full-length portraits of models.

These paintings in 'The Henry Ward Exhibition', are painted on floor to ceiling white canvases and grab my attention. The New York models are in their socks and painted a foot from the bottom of the canvas, giving the illusion of floating. The rest of their clothing is trendy black, neutral colours and denim. Eyes are glazed as if from too much looking into cameras and their bodies hang loosely. A dash of red on Sara's tank top and a smidgen of red on Lisa's socks are the only bright colours. Most names are short and to the point ? Klynt, Sue, Kat, Jeff ? and then there's Manon. Her name is more complex and her eyes alien-like, on her bare midriff there is no belly-button showing and a hand in her trousers pulls them outwards.

Different effects are created using paint and glazes to make clothing appear to drape hang and even sparkle. The white gesso background is not uniform, in places the canvas is soaked smooth with paint and in others the canvas texture shows through.

Moving towards the door it looks like there is a musician sitting in the corner of the gallery ? double-take. The extended legs and knees on which his instrument rests are incredibly realistic. Following his body upwards though, he is the other worldly 'Oud Player', definitely not in Bermuda. His instrument looks something like a lute with a bent neck. The musician's head seems dwarfed by the oud, his hands extra large, all is shadowed as if only the music matters. Dark redish hues mix with white for a background which takes up over half the space on this huge floor to ceiling canvas that seems almost as wide. The 3 Bermudian portraits similarly have more background than portrait, as if it's needed to balance the intensity of the subjects. Looking towards the gallery door is, 'Bermuda Man', in a pink bandanna. He looks weary and seems bleary eyed even though he is not facing forward. These three portraits were painted from photographs of people caught in very early morning. The man's skin is painted in a variety of hues gently applied on the face and becoming more jagged on his neck and the hues match his sweater. He stands out against the black behind him. So too does 'Bermuda Girl' painted on deep, to dark, garnet. She looks a bit stunned, her satchel slung over her shoulder. Her skin almost blends into the background as her white shirt and bandanna glow. 'Bermuda Woman', looks like she's had a hard life, creases drag her face down following the line of her straightened hair. Her blouse stops the gravity effect folding at horizontal angles. Her head looks perched on a different person's body with something that looks like 'Nale' strangely scrawled across her blouse. Mr. Ward clearly is not afraid of 'blank' space, but in his most recent portraits there is almost none. These head portraits do not fit onto the small approximately foot square boards. Where they are cut off - the top or sides of heads ? and how much torso is shown, is interesting in itself. 'Judge', fills a board, both literally and figuratively, portraying a man who seems to have lived an intense life. A couple of globs of paint stand out, one like a cold sore on his upper lip. 'Susie' looks tortured, or sad, an intensity not trying to burst away from the constrictions of the board but perhaps shrink into it. The paint on all of these portraits is applied in swaths of about an inch or more. There is no pattern as edges butte against each other vertically, horizontally and at various angles ? helping to create the intensity.

Mr. Ward's three self-portraits are equally intense portraying a man who takes art very seriously, though perhaps not always himself. One portrait is dominated by a view up his nose, perhaps the antithesis of looking down his nose. The other two portray him differently as if these are representations of different aspects of his personality. As perspective on the person who created this art they become even more interesting in the context of the other paintings.

On a small wall facing Front Street is, 'Natashia', a painting different from all the rest. It's a haunting portrait of a slender-headed woman looking straight ahead. Her hair is slightly out of place, her face hues of greens and red, her lips are outstandingly red and upper torso bare. Mysterious.