Artist Lydia Franks arrived in Bermuda 20 years ago and thinks she has probably been to the beach just about every day since then.Her love of the ocean and the outdoors is reflected in her first solo exhibit, ‘Bermuda Treasures - Above and Below’.The show opens on Sunday at the Bermuda Arts Centre in Dockyard. “I snorkel almost every day,” she said.“I check the wind and go the opposite way to snorkel. I like to go out on the reef to Elbow Beach, or to the reef off of John Smith’s Bay. I wear a kind of multi-coloured fanny pack on my back, so that jet skiers and boaters won’t hit me. Sometimes I forget where I am when I am snorkelling.“My work clothes are snorkel and wet suit. I take a camera with underwater housing and photograph the ocean. I have an Olympic Stylus Tough camera. I also paint above land. I paint cows eating palm branches, fish, coral, whatever the treasure is. I just enjoy that. This particular show is all inspiration about Bermuda.”Mrs Franks is the wife of Pastor Charly Franks of the First Baptist Church in Devonshire, and her attitude towards her art is a spiritual one. “God told me to show Him off and paint His treasures,” she said. “Whatever treasures He gives me and I am inspired by, that is what is in this show.”The mixed media exhibit features mostly watercolours but also includes pen and ink drawings. It will also showcase paintings from Mrs Franks’ series ‘100 Days of Light’.These include everything from sunsets to light reflected on the ocean. They are paintings of light experienced over a period of 100 days. Mrs Franks is originally from the mountains of West Virginia. She majored in art in college and received a teaching certificate from the Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma.Sunday’s opening is from 5.30pm to 7.30pm. The exhibit runs until September 9.