Father and son Frank Chiappa and Chris Mahoney have come together to put on an art exhibition.

The show, 'Bermuda: Past and Present' hopes to take us back to the old whitewashed homes of old Bermuda, while bringing us up to modern day scenes with which most of us are more familiar.

The show is part of the Masterworks' Artist in the Garden series, which runs throughout the year.

Mr. Chiappa's last show saw him present work from a journey to his mother's homeland.

But this time, the artist, who recently spent time in San Miguel, Mexico with Bermudian artist Bruce Stuart, offers a mixture of the surreal and contemporary.

While his son, Mr. Mahoney has shown at the Bermuda College, where he is a second year graphic arts student, this will be his debut at Masterworks' Rose Gallery.

The 20-year-old said he has always enjoyed drawing and was inspired by the example of his parents. "Both my mother and father are artists and they have inspired me with their talent and creativity," he said. "I also draw my inspiration from other artists and natural objects."

Mr. Chiappa thought a joint show would offer an ideal stepping stone for his son. "Basically it was to introduce him to the art scene," he said. "Lesley (Rego) asked if I wanted to jump on this programme and I said here is my son's name, so we have been working on it for the past ten months.

"It is going to be an interesting show and it is encouraging him – it is his first show and he's all excited about it; like a father and son thing."

Mr. Mahoney described the opportunity to show with his father as: "Unbelievable!"

"Being able to come onto the scene with a well established artist, and that artist being my father, I can't ask for anything more," he said.

"His knowledge and guidance have made preparing for this show an enjoyably experience."

Not having settled on a particular medium, Mr. Mahoney said: "For this show, I've mainly worked with acrylics on canvas.

"My works reflects what interests me at the time. By and large, I render animals and figures in naturalistic surrealism."

Mr. Chiappa added: "We decided to make it a Bermuda theme, so I came up with 'Bermuda: Past and Present', so I have done some paintings of some old Bermuda postcards that I got from the library."

He will also be exhibiting a piece that he painted some 25 years ago.

"We are going back 100 years, so for me it was almost like a time tunnel, when you step into the gallery you will have the early 1900s and then I did one, which was based on the Bermuda Triangle, particularly when the planes went missing, in 1945.

"From there it becomes surreal and then it comes up to present day.

"Also I have a couple that have political undertones, one is to do with the Independence issue."

Mr. Mahoney plans to continue his studies at a university in the UK and his father said that during the Bermuda College's art show earlier this year, he saw how talented his son was.

"He is very talented, and I'm not saying that just because he is my son, he's a great artist," he boasted.

"I looked at his work and I thought, 'it's not bad'. It's not a bad idea we got together on this project, which has been interesting and very stimulating for him as well as for me.

"It has brought us closer together artistically and everything else."

The show opens this evening at the Rose Garden Gallery, at the Masterworks Foundation. Doors open at 5.30 p.m. to 7 p.m. The show remains up until October 24. All are welcome.

For more information on gallery opening times ring 236-2950.