For most people, their morning fix of caffeine is the requisite jolt that kick-starts their day. For artist Daniel Dempster it's more than that.

A "regular" among regulars at Rock Island Coffee, he has two motives for being there: one is to get away from his studio where he works alone and interact on a social basis with the rest of humanity, and the other is to capture some of his fellow sippers in one-hour vine charcoal portraits.

Now, there is nothing new about artists with sketchbooks hanging out in cafes, but the idea of doing likewise came to Mr. Dempster fairly recently. Best known for his water pieces, he is not universally associated with portraiture.

"One day, I just decided maybe it would be fun, and something light, interesting and relatively quick to do. That I could carry on a conversation, and combine work and play seemed to be a rather nice thing to do, particularly in a coffee shop environment," he says.

With a "gallery" that changes, on average, three times an hour, there was no shortage of subjects, and it seems there was no trouble in persuading them to sit for their portrait. In fact, the hour proved to be therapeutic for both parties.

"People have told me how relaxing it is, having to do nothing for an hour. As the pace of life gets faster and faster there's less and less excuse to simply sit and take in your surroundings, so there is an overlapping social service as well," Mr. Dempster says.

If some subjects began their sitting a little self-consciously through being the sole focus of Mr. Dempster's attention, that feeling soon gave way to an easy rapport which allowed the artist to capture shifting moods and reflections of the sitter from which emerges the character of the "real" person on paper - something he described as "quite startling" at times.

The process of creating the portraits is not dissimilar to the artist's well-known water studies in that the image begins with a pencil sketch to establish the basic structure, after which charcoal is drawn and rubbed in to build depth and tone, light and shadow.

"All of a sudden there is a person coming out of the page. It is really quite a charge when it works," the artist says. "Charcoal is such an elegant, sensuous medium."

The result of all the rapport, sketching and drawing, as well as other personalities in Bermuda's art world, is that there is an exhibition of more than 30 Dempster portraits of people from all walks of life now on at Rock Island Coffee - but not, alas only until 6 p.m. tomorrow. Admission is free - until you smell the coffee, that is.

For further information, contact Mr. Dempster at 296-2547 or e-mail him at dandemliquidlight.bm.

Samples of his work can be seen on www.liquidlight.bm.