How do you go from failing your GCSE art examination to becoming one of the lucky few to have your work accepted for the Bacardi Biennial 2002 Exhibition in the Bermuda National Gallery?

In the case of Kevin Morris the answer is: Practice makes perfect.

That the young artist impressed the foreign art experts who judged the entries not once, but twice speaks volumes for the way he has gone about harnessing his natural talent - something which lay dormant for many years.

In fact, when Mr. Morris finished high school he had no idea what he wanted to do in life, so he became a house painter and while he was very good at it, it was his subsequent decision to join Woolfworks, a firm specialising in decorative finishes, which awakened the talents that would set him on the path to what he hopes will one day become a full-time career as an artist.

Learning the specialised faux finish techniques step by step on the job, Mr. Morris instinctively knew he was on to something, so he began using his tiny apartment as a `canvas' on which to further experiment and learn. He painted his walls and furniture time and again, perfecting his techniques and increasing his appreciation for art. Next he moved on to painting on ordinary canvas drop cloths, which he spread on the floor. His chosen medium was and remains latex acrylic because of its quick drying properties, but he also uses marker pens and crayons.

As the finished canvases accumulated he photographed them, and last March took the photographs along to artist Glen Wilks at the Kafu Gallery.

"I got a good response and it just went from there. I started showing my work for the first time," Mr. Morris says. "Before then I had just painted for fun."

To date, he has participated in Kafu and Rosebank gallery exhibitions, and also at the K.O.R. gallery in Ontario, Canada.

On September 11, 2001 Mr. Morris was listening to the terrible news pouring in on the television. He became so angry and frustrated that he went out and bought an eight-foot long canvas and began painting.

Bombarded by the horror stories, he filled canvas with images of aircraft, the Pentagon, boxed details of the doomed flights, fire trucks, and of course the twin towers. With his head filled with the constantly changing scene, he struggled to find the right expression for what he felt.

"There were so many different things relating to the day that I put them all on canvas, but I found it hard to paint things realistically, so in the end I got fed up. The painting just wasn't going right, so I cut off one third of the canvas and started covering over the images that were there," he says. "I started with bigger brush strokes and worked down to the finest brush there is, layering colours over and over again, and as I was doing so I was thinking of all the dust and debris in the air.

"What was there was wiped out, and so it was with my painting. Now you can just about make out the twin towers, and a bit of blue sky."

In fact, the finished work, entitled `Following September 11th', so impressed the Bacardi Biennial 2002 judges that it is now one of two pieces by this talented young artist work hanging prominently in Bermuda National Gallery.

The other work, entitled `All in One, Part Two', is equally intriguing, and reflects Mr. Morris' habit of tearing strips off finished canvases.

"When I put them on a stretcher the canvases are not normally quite square so I cut the extra bit off, and that is what `All in One, Part Two' is composed of," he says.

A quiet man without ego, the artist is still bemused by his success in having two out of his ten entries accepted for the Biennial, but there is no doubt that it is also having a salutary effect on his productivity.

"I had never submitted my work for judging before, but if you are doing art, from what I gather the Biennial is the thing in Bermuda, and it was just good timing for me," he says. "I was hoping to get something in, and it is a really good feeling to be part of the exhibition. In fact, I think it is the best thing for a contemporary artist, which I am." When the group show opens at the Bermuda Society of Arts tomorrow he will have many paintings included, one of which is a record nine feet by four feet in size.

Mr. Morris lists Jackson Pollock as one of his favourite painters, and Jean-Michel Basquiat as another.

"Basquiat started off with graffiti on the streets, and his art is very child-like and dirty, with words criss-crossing things. He was very famous, and died when he was 27," he says.

Defending Pollock's work, which some regard as simply flicked paint, Mr. Morris says: "There is a art to flicking paint. To make it look good you have to be talented."

And yes, he has experimented with this technique himself, as well as mirror image art. Looking at where he was artistically growing up and where he is now, the modest Bermudian is still coming to terms with his progress.

"I never imagined that I would become an artist, but it is very exciting and I have no complaints. It's been a good year," he says.

However, it is not over yet. In October Kevin Morris has been invited to have a one-man exhibition at the Masterworks Gallery on Front Street. As for the future, his mind is made up.

"A lot of people are artists but don't pursue their talent. I am definitely going to pursue mine."