Half a century old decaying and outdated slides are the inspiration for the Interim Gallery?s new show.

The exhibition entitled New Paintings by Johanna Flath opens on Friday evening at the Gallery, which is on the corner of Reid and King Streets.

?The paintings are oil on canvas,? said Ms Flath.

?I wanted to formalise and preserve the images that came from half century old decaying outdated slides of fleeting, casual moments in people?s lives.

?These paintings were inspired by old slides that my great-grandfather took between 1945 and 1955. I was really intrigued by these images of my family in Bermuda during that time. It seemed to be very idyllic, peaceful, happy times for them. The cedar trees blanketed the landscape, frilly dresses and bicycles, time moved slower.

?The slides were becoming badly damaged because of mildew, so I brought them back to Maine with me where the climate is drier. I really liked the idea of painting images that my great grandfather snapped with a camera some 50 years ago.

?A familial artistic collaboration spanning four generations. These people in the pictures have aged or are no longer with us. Bermuda?s landscape has changed drastically.

?And yet to paint these images on the slides that are ephemeral instances forgotten brings new life into that moment.?

Her feeling was to be able to breathe new life into them.

?I felt in some way that I was able to resurrect, remember and reconnect with the distaff side off my family while I was drawing these images,? she said.

?All the images are of female relatives in similar intimate, yet mundane domestic settings akin to the paintings of Mary Cassatt or Sharon Wilson.

?From looking at the slides I realised that there were many more women than men in my family, probably one of the reasons my great-grandfather took up photography as a hobby.?

When asked where she created her works, she said: ?I paint in my studio, which is in the barn of an 18th century farmhouse, in Maine. ?These particular paintings were painted during the darkest coldest months of this year when I was missing Bermuda and my family the most.?

Ms Flath teaches children?s art classes and spends lots of time in the garden during the summer months. ?I love to grow food, as much as I love to paint,? she said.

She began working on drawings for these paintings for nearly a year. ?But each painting took about two to three weeks,? said Ms Flath. ?I paint several pieces in a similar palette at one time going back and forth allowing them to take form together.

?It is hard to single out one piece because I see them as a whole body. I suppose the image of the four ladies coming off the beach ?Trunk Island Bathers? was the impetus for all the paintings.

?I have drawn that image countless times. They make me smile.?

How many is she exhibiting?

Ms Flath is displaying seven larger oil paintings, a few smaller ones and a potpourri of drawings and watercolours.

?I have enjoyed painting since I was very young,? said Ms Flath, ?And I was further encouraged to keep developing my skills by my two art teachers at Bermuda High School (BHS) Amy Evans and Lisa Quinn, who are both local artists. I graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in painting and have been making art ever since.?

How does this show differ from her last one?

?In the past I have been less focused on the figure and their narrative implications. The last paintings I exhibited in Bermuda were impressions of ageing limestone walls, very abstract process driven paintings. I didn?t use a brush for those paintings and these new ones I primarily worked with a tiny sable hair brush.

?Also, these paintings are much more sentimental and personal to me ? being images of my family, but they do share the same interest in exploring textures and other formal elements of painting.

?I suppose they also share a certain nostalgia about Bermuda, of things mildewed and ageing and a place in time that no longer exists for my generation.?

?New Paintings by Johanna Flath opens at 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Friday at the Interim.