There has been a little progress at the Lighthouse Tearoom?s gallery. A show of Christopher Marson?s watercolours opened there on Sunday and it is infinitely less aggressive than Rhona Emerson?s gutsy oils recently featured there. There seems to be somewhat less tearoom-kitsch competing with the paintings than there was for Mrs. Emerson?s rather larger show.

The lighting is improved and despite Monday?s rain the day was brighter than it was on my last visit, but the paintings were easier to see. On the other hand the egregious cuckoo clock is still frantically ticking and announcing the hour with aggressive cuckoos followed by an accompaniment of Alpine music while distracting little figures circle about.

The thumping background music, now an almost inevitable interference with the digestive process in any but the highest quality restaurants, is as incompatible with the peaceful viewing of art as it is with digestion particularly art as peaceful as that of Chris Marson.

There are fewer works in this show than in Mrs. Emerson?s and the resulting more gracious display was pleasing to the eye even before the paintings were individually observed. The paintings were neatly labelled and consecutively numbered, but there was no catalogue. If I have made a mistake in my references, that is the reason for it and I apologise.

As might be expected with an artist of Chris Marson?s renown more than half the works were sold at the opening reception including almost all of the best ones. Of these ?Morning Light? and ?Noon Build Up? are both ?wet? watercolours executed with the artist?s typical restraint and almost completely without the characteristic Marson touches of definition that as a rule hold his paintings together.

They represent a step forward in his style and the latter was an extremely felicitous impression of the development of a ?Morgan?s cloud? over the Island, catching perfectly the impression of the great height and looming presence achieved by such clouds.

I was also very taken with an unsold work, ?King?s Point Island?. Perhaps it remained unsold because it was hung in a corner over a potted plant and its style is quite blocky, almost as though inspired by Cezanne, but the effect was a little stronger than is usual, without any loss of the restraint that identifies most of the artist?s work.

In the best Marson tradition were two larger works, ?Astwood Cove? and ?Mangrove Bay? and the smaller but commanding ?Lone Survivor?. All convey Bermuda?s unique light and are easily the most evocative Bermuda genre watercolours since the quite different work of Adolph Treidler, from a study of whose architectural works Mr. Marson might benefit.

Architectural perspective is somewhat casual in Mr. Marson?s work, and though this doesn?t much detract from the artistic quality of the paintings it makes for less comfortable viewing when, as in ?Sears Hill?, the vanishing point is well forward of the background.

Of the architectural impressions ?Somerset Evening? had similar problems with perspective and rendered the work somewhat untidy, a word I never expect to use in reference to a Marson work, usually spare, clean and understated to the point of almost meticulous.

Untidy, however, applies to other works in this show as well. ?Dockyard from Spanish Point?, ?Roof at Sunset? and a couple of Astwood Park studies fall into this category.

On the whole, however, this is a fine show, scattered about with the subtle skies punctuated by splendidly rendered palms and sustained with restful, clear water and grateful shadows that we have come to expect from one of our leading artists.