Masterworks artist in residence Emma Jayne Jones is a ?take no excuses? kind of woman.

When her students complained that they didn?t have the right equipment to paint, or they had too much housework, or not enough talent, she told them: ?Rubbish! Go paint.?

When she found that her painting equipment ? paint tubes, turpentine, easel, canvases ? were too heavy to carry up a hill she bribed her friends with cider and sandwiches gets them to help.

When she found that her lightweight flip-flop was an ineffective weapon against the enormous centipede in her Masterworks provided apartment she simply turned to the Yellow Pages ? which work quite well if you keep pounding for a few minutes.

She is just the kind of person to help the Masterworks Foundation show Bermudians that art is for everyone, not just the rich and over-educated.

Miss Jones has been the Masterworks artist in residence for about five weeks. She is from Ruthin, North Wales.

Miss Jones will lead a Masterworks sketching tour of St. George?s for people of all ages and abilities on Thursday evening.

?The hard part is getting out there and actually doing it,? she said. ?Once you are doing it it is fine. I do get blocked myself, sometimes. I think of lots of things I should be doing such as mopping the floor or washing up. Then I say ?get out there and do some painting and you will feel much better?. I always do feel better. It is the physical and mental practise of painting that I am addicted to.?

To come to Bermuda, she received a travel grant from Wales Art International. As part of the artist in residence programme, Masterworks provided her with accommodation and an exhibition of her work at the end of her stay in Bermuda.

She is not only an artist, but an art advocate and a member of the National Association of Gallery Educators (Engage) that promotes the accessibility and enjoyment of visual arts. One of her aims in life is to show people that art is for everyone.

?A lot of people do feel intimidated by an art gallery,? Miss Jones said. ?Back home we have this idea that it is a place for posh people. There was a survey done and art galleries were paralleled, in people?s minds, with places of religion and courts and all the other austere intimidating buildings. Really, that is not what galleries are about. Generally, galleries are about exhibiting private collections, or collections that are held by a fund, for everybody to enjoy. It is a sad irony that the main people who the work is made accessible, are intimidated about going to see it.?

Back in Wales, Miss Jones does a lot of work with local schools, nursing homes and community groups to get them into her local gallery in Ruthin Wales.

?I sometimes get to work with the artist as well,? she said. ?We will place the artist in a school, a special needs centre or a hospital and I will go in with the artist. I will almost be like a visual interpreter, because sometimes the artist might be really good at their particular field, but not have the skills to present it to a group of people.?

The arts programme in her community has worked so well, that she no longer has to chase people down to visit the gallery.

?It is very time consuming but it is well worth it,? she said. ?The community groups are starting to link onto visiting the gallery now. It encourages people to look and enjoy and it gives them confidence. You don?t have to be good at art to enjoy it. It is the one thing that everyone can have a comment on.?

Laughing, she said to get people into the gallery, she ?coerces them?.

?Put a buffet on and everyone will turn up,? she said.

In addition to bribes of food, she said holding associative events in the gallery also helped to gently introduce people to the gallery. Making the gallery?s hours more convenient to people who worked from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. was also a good thing.

?Sometimes there will be talks before the actual art opening,? she said. ?That will encourage people to meet the artist and have the work explained to them. Also, the Ruthin Craft Centre, where I work, has held conferences and symposiums on particular themes. That draws people, but those people tend to be interested in going to galleries anyway.?

She was originally attracted to Masterworks by the fact that they were setting up an education room at their headquarters in the Botanical Gardens, in Paget.

?I was out here on holiday in January,? she said. ?I was actually in St. George?s for New Year?s Eve. Because I am an artist I looked up some of the galleries. Masterworks had a photography exhibition and also a display of their development programme.

?They were having some building work done and they were going to have an education room. I went up and said, ?oh great, you are having an education room, I am really pleased for you?.?

Miss Jones discovered that she was a ?people person? and liked painting outdoors while at the University of Wolverhampton.

?When I was in college we were given a project to go out and draw around the town,? Miss Jones said. ?I was the only one at the end of the week that was still out there. Everyone else took photographs and went inside. They reckoned they attracted the weirdoes. I wasn?t intimidated by that. I didn?t even realise that the people who talked to me were weird.?

She said painting on the streets of St. George?s has been lovely, and she has met many locals and visitors this way.

?On an island where there is delight at every turn of colour and composition, along with the challenge with intense heat and fierce sunlight I am finding many quiet, calming spaces and scenes,? she said. ?From a home in Wales renowned for its green, but also home to many shades of grey, it is an almost overwhelming experience to the senses here and so far a thoroughly enjoyable residency.?

Painting outside has its disadvantages, she said. While in Bermuda Miss Jones has mainly painted scenes that she can walk to, because local bus drivers have shown an aversion to her bringing wet oil canvases on the bus.

?In terms of what I carry, I have really slimmed right down here,? she said. ?Instead of carrying all my paints out, I put a small amount of each colour in a jar and carry that.?

For her first week in Bermuda she just sketched with pen and ink and then did watercolours and still-lifes inside her studio, so that she could adjust to the humidity and see how it affected her paints.

?Then I started to venture out further,? she said. ?I really wanted to get into the oils, because I paint in oils at home. At home, although I use to do a lot of landscape, five years ago I had the opportunity to work with an experienced still-life oil painter.

?I met with him two mornings a week for about nine months. I learned more with him than I ever did at university. I did a foundation course at Wrexham College, and then went to Wolverhampton University to do painting and print making. I got to the painting and didn?t gel with the department they were very minimalist. They were more about ideas than actually doing anything.?

She eventually majored in print making in university, and didn?t seriously take up oil painting until after graduation.

Miss Jones will have an exhibition of her work at Masterworks in the Botanical Gardens on September 9. It will have a Welsh theme, as she is from Wales. Her work will also be appearing at the Manchester Art Show with Artists? Quarter Wales and at the Stark Gallery in Canterbury.

The sketchwalk this Thursday is for adults, teens and children over eight years old, accompanied by an adult from 6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. The fee is $25. The emphasis is on fun. For more information telephone 236-2950 or email edumworkslogic.bm .