Most know him as a Royal Gazette photographer, but Arthur Bean is also an artist whose expertise with computer-manipulated images has led to the second of his one-man exhibition under the auspices of the Masterworks Foundation as part of its `Artists Up Front Street' series.

Opening on Friday evening in the Foundation's Bermuda House Lane gallery, Mr. Bean's 23 images represent the culmination of almost a year's work, during which he has extracted countless elements from his photographs, many of them of Bermuda scenery, and reworked them into fantasy images, largely with a reptilian theme.

Inspiration for Mr. Bean's latest works came from lectures he attended which were given by controversial British ex-professional footballer and former TV personality David Icke, whose personal epiphany led to a career travelling the world talking about shape-shifting reptilians occupying positions of global power.

"It sounds quite far out, but once you listen to him it is a rather interesting take on reality, and it gave me something to work with," Mr. Bean says. "I didn't take it absolutely seriously, it was a little bit of fun and science fiction, which I like, which in turn resulted in some of the images and lizards you will see in the show."

"Working with a computer is a whole new world," he says. "You can literally create your own take on reality because you can manipulate things so much and include things that were not in the original photograph or original artwork to create a bizarre, new and unique world. I think it is a fun show."

Using one of the images for his opening reception invitation, the artist says he was unprepared for the reaction of one recipient - his mother.

"She called to tell me she would not be attending because she thinks the work is Satanic," he says. "There is a fair share of weirdness in some of the images but I did not think they would offend anybody, and I most certainly did not intend to create an impression that any of them were Satanic, which they are not, so I can only say to people: `Come and see for yourself'."

l Mr. Bean's untitled exhibition will continue through November 6. For further information see the Bermuda Calendar or telephone Masterworks at 295-5580.