Eight of Bermuda's leading artists are now to be seen at the Desmond Fountain Gallery in the Emporium Building on Front Street. For the most part they are either at the top of their form or have broken new personal ground.

Most notable in the latter category is Daniel Dempster. In one sense he has gone back to his undoubted talent for interpreting shallow water, its dynamics and its plays of light. Where he used to work in chalk he has now taken to oils and the result is little short of dramatic. His star turn is "Wet Sands, Grape Bay" where he catches the evening light in reflection overan expanse of rising tide spread smoothly over almost flat sand. His perception of light and colour is as faultless as his well-known technique and sense of composition.

Almost in the same league is "Sunbeam, South Shore". Here the artist catches a glimmer of afternoon sun in water that is for the most part shaded by summer clouds. The warm glow imparts surprising warmth to an otherwise cool painting. One of the more exciting works is "Portents, South Shore" where Mr. Dempster, long known for his mastery of ripples on calm water, tackles with complete confidence and success tangled water breaking at the edge of a roiled sea. Mr. Dempster is back in his element after some years of dabbling in art forms that have required long written artist's statements to give them any meaning whatever. Here there is no such written statement. None is needed.

Jonah Jones has also moved on in his steady progress as an artist. "Cloud Reflection of Ely's" is an almost brash impression of reflected cloud in the waters of Ely's Harbour. It is modestly punctuated with his characteristic orange mooring buoys now being flatteringly commandeered by a few of his imitators. The effect, even for an artist whose works are usually strong, is very powerful and effective.

The Study for "Slices of Daniels Head" seems to me to be a considerable improvement over the finished work where the slices of the title have become as regular and smooth as a pile of toast in contrast to the textured irregularity of the rocks in the study. "Red Sailboat" is a characteristic Jonah work considerably enlivened by the subject boat being down at the bow and in obvious need of bailing. In the hands of most artists this would merely look odd. Jonah knows how to sit his boats securely in the water and can get away with such little odditieswith aplomb.

Chris Marson has a collection of eight watercolours and four oils. You can easily miss "Summer Cumulus" unless you are out on Front Street looking in. Don't. It is perhaps the finest of a fine group of this accomplished artist's understated works. For me the more understated his work is the better I like it. Mr. Marson's extraordinary gift for weighting the lightest brushstroke with a heavy freight of meaning is a talent of which I stand in awe.

"South Shore Dunes" is another such work. The sand is barely hinted at, yet the dune is as solid a pile of sand as any other on the South Shore, brilliantly delineated by the barest of warm shadows and defined by minimal vegetation. Even more spare and evocative is "Morning Cloud, King' point" with its bare shadow of cloud and attenuated point of land for definition. Asmall boat is almost the only indicator of the smooth expanse of water. Mr. Marson is a master of the economical brushstroke and it is pleasing to see that his oils are trending in the same direction.

As unclassifiable as ever, Will Collieson remains his uniquely rewarding self. Completely outside what could cautiously but inadequately be described as his usual repertoire is "Life' a Beach". Gaudy palms and umbrellas are overpainted and scored through to achieve a textured effect that relieves the painting from mere crudity. The result is brightly entertaining ifrather splashy. "Plastered", a mixed media work, is more in the line of Mr. Collieson's subtle humour. In the small layered work it is possible to see the blank, glazed, inexpressive face of a man on the brink of falling down dead drunk.

Perhaps the most fascinating of his works and the most difficult to see is "The Last Supper". It is an almost conventional arrangement of thirteen figures behind a table in the manner customarily followed since Da Vinci. They are, however, dimensional abstractions seen through torn away screen wire. Overhead is what could be taken to be the eye of a camera. It is possible to see either deep spirituality or something close to derision in the work. Either way it is likely to stir up the wrath of the fundamentalist traditionalists in our midst.

So, too, may "The Bored Angel" by Graham Foster. It is a distinctly fleshly, naked, female angel casting a sidelong, almost come hither glance strongly suggesting explicit sexuality. She stands amidst, amongst other things, fallen crosses. It suggests the kind of inadequacy suspected by many in the Christian concept of the hereafter, an inadequacy overcompensated for in the Islamic counterpart concept. "Aftermath" is an entirely topical Foster take on post-Katrina New Orleans. It is luridly lit with the artist's preferred greenish luminescence. The four versions of "Chupa Cabra" make up a set of doves with human heads and hands for claws in various lights and against various backgrounds. Admirers of the unique vision of Graham Foster should not miss this show.

Sheilagh Head is, for the most part, at the top of her traditional best form in this show. The large "Light on the East End" of Coney Island looking south is a splendid feast for the eyes. There is no excess of purple in the shadows and the evening light infuses the tangible humidity in the air with touches of Naples yellow. No one achieves this kind of Bermuda atmosphere and light in the same way. Only slightly more empurpled are "Ely's Harbour" and "Jews Bay". In the former a calmer, more tranquil image was particularly pleasing. "Spring Planting" is an overland view with spring flowers in the foreground, a circumstance that often causes Mrs. Head to go hog wild with exuberant gusto. On this occasion she restrained her enthusiasm and the result is as satisfying as may be imagined. "Bouncing Light", however, is much less felicitous. It might as easily be an early Jonah Jones on a bad day. The light may bounce; the boats and the water certainly do.

Molly Smith's refined talent as a watercolourist is usually lost in her tendency to paint tourist-trap subjects with an excess of commercial pink. In this show her "Wind-whipped Trees" display her talent at its excellent best. This work might well serve as an illustration in a particularly fineedition of Anderson or Grimm.

Bruce Stuart's small bronzes are a refreshing change from his usual stylised, rather stiff works. These have both style and character and are abstractions of his usual subject matter. They gain considerably by being set below three cut-out, painted house fronts that might better be used as pop-ups in a children's book.

The odd man out in this group of Bermuda-based artists is the Philadelphian James Toogood. He is, indeed, too good to be true in a purely technical sense. From where I stand he could save himself a great deal of time and trouble by using a camera instead of paints and a brush.

With these mild cavils, I would think this would certainly qualify as the best show of the year. It is also easy to drop into and not so large that it takes a lot of time. It would be a pity indeed to miss it.