Big art work, like that in the "Monumental" show at the Bermuda Arts Centre in Dockyard, has the potential to pack a big punch or to leave one wanting more.

Elaine White's "Showing Colours" delivers that punch. It is bold and wonderfully playful. Two large, bright multi-coloured salamanders, all done in half-inch dots, curl facing each other on the four-foot, eight-inch square thick, sturdy canvas. It can be displayed on the wall or on the floor. In this show it sitting on two-foot-high plinths, which is intriguing, drawing the viewer to look down upon it.

In contrast, but just as arresting on a nearby wall, is a stunning deep blue /purple luminescent abstract, "Post Dreams", by Colin Troncossi. Streaking water is one immediate feeling of the painting as oil on canvas seems alive and pulsing. As the largest piece in the show, four by eight feet, it packs a huge visual impact.

The invited artists were asked to contribute artwork "big in size and spirit" three by three foot or larger, giving them "an opportunity to work big," says Centre director Justine Foster. Most complied with the only real exception being sculpture. Angela Gentleman contributed two tall waxed organic clay forms in natural brown. They are around two feet high with pleasant curves and mixed media additions.

Diane Amos delivers "With a Big Bouquet." It is a pretty bouquet of flowers with a nice contrast of yellow lilies, and other flowers, on a blue background. Don Trousdell's "Bluebird over Somerset" is a brightly coloured mixed media abstract on canvas. Precisely executed, it plays with perspective as the bluebird is bigger than the steeple central to the piece and the rest is mostly bright waves of colour.

Probably the most complicated piece in the show is Kevin Morris' untitled acrylic. The large black background is divided into 2 inch squares painted with a variety of shapes and colours. There is bright turquoise, red and pink but also light blue, brown and lavender in pulsing complexity.

Bruce Stewart's "La Casa de Rojo" has perhaps a slight similarity. The colours are limited to black for the background and mostly red, orange and some blue and green. The Casa seems to be a gateway to somewhere out of this world as a maze leads one around to an unknown destination.

Jonah Jones' oil "Punts and Floating Dock" is much more down to earth. It has stunning blue/purple light and shadows dancing with the boats. "Bay Grape" Lynn Morrell's dyed and painted textile artwork is very earthy, and fun, as leaves protrude from the surface, it's difficult to resist the temptation to fondle them.

Sheelagh Head's abstract "Watcher in the Garden" leaves one wondering where the watcher is, what is watching in the green, pink, red and pale yellow, is it a bird? Von Rica Dickinson's mixed media abstract is soothing with its organic browns and purples. Shells accentuate the swirls, triangles and various shapes playing and interacting with each other heading heavenward.

Graham Foster is off on a different track again with "Sixteen Lures." Glassy eyed fish, four across and four down are all swimming to the right. Each fish is quite different and accentuated by a different background colours. There is a pleasant graduation from colour to colour and shape to shape.

Maria Evers Smith's "Palms and Poinciana" is a realistic oil on canvas. It is amazing what she can do with a palate knife, the sky is complex light. Jon Leger's "Genesis" is a mostly pale blue/grey abstract. No doubt it is the beginning of something bubbling, gestating.

"Porgy Hole" by Chris Mason is a traditional watercolour. The sky is purple, blue, grey as a storm is brewing and the boats are pitching. Dan Dempster's "Pirate's Reach, Tobacco Bay," has almost a sinister feel to it with heavy almost black rocks that the lightness of water cannot balance out. The small sale in a distance looks like it would be in peril to encounter these rocks.

Louisa Bermingham-Flannery's untitled oil on board is also disturbing. It brings a nice discord to the show with what looks like a road killed rooster. It is smudged and looks unfinished, what once were pleasant lines of feathers seem to now be sagging into death.

Since the artworks are all large there are not very many pieces in this show but there is a nice contrast, and a few present that big punch which make them worth viewing.

The "Monumental" show will continue at the Bermuda Arts Centre in Dockyard until February 28.