House *** The annual Small Paintings Exhibition, now in its seventh year at Heritage House, has become a firm seasonal favourite on the local art circuit, so it seems an odd move to combine it, as has been done this year, with the 1994 Marine Exhibition. The end result is that the small paintings are crammed together at one end of the gallery, while the ships take pride of place on the two main walls.

As it happens, the `small' show is stronger than ever, with some exquisite work from those who have become `regulars' freshened with offerings from a couple of artists who are making a first appearance. One of the undoubted attractions of these annual shows is that it provides a chance to acquire smaller (and therefore cheaper) works by established artists.

Sheilagh Head possibly surprised herself as much as anyone else when she first adapted her usually expansive works to miniaturist scale; now, she is a leader of the medium, as she proves yet again with a spectacular collection of 13 works. Grouped closely together, they form a collage-like aspect of the Island which under her brush, takes on a Wordsworthian hymn to nature.

If, and sometimes we do, take for granted the technical brilliance of her painting, Sheilagh Head also reminds us in this show that technique, in any art, is the key to artistic freedom.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in her Southlands Beach where, with a palette of warm browns and pinks, she attacks the sky with lavishly accented brushwork, presenting us with a work that is almost Gauginesque in its preoccupation with colour and line. If it's her classic art you are after, fear not, and look no further than Flying Colours, where a white house rises from an abutment of land that is dreamily reflected in the surrounding water.

Of the new artists, Patricia Preston's batik works which apply this venerable technique to modern designs are distinguished, in this case, by their wonderfully vibrant colours. This gifted American artist suggests a certain `art deco' effect, especially in her delightfully stylised feline studies.

Cherie Sikking, a former pupil of Maurine Cooper, exhibits some promising water colours, notably her closely observed pink Bougainvillaea, sprawling luxuriously all over the paper and her cryptically named Plant, both of which are richly toned.

Jo Linberg displays a series of tiny, lighthearted watercolours with such titles as Lion and Mouse, Blue Elephant, Three Ducks. Humorously and deftly drawn, they would be perfect for a child's room.

Molly Smith has eight watercolour Bermuda scenes. There is an unusual view of the much-painted Bridge House and a new departure, surely, with her picture of a man whitewashing a roof. Her best work, however, is her exquisitely painted Rhubarb, the landmark cottage by the library on Queen Street.

Maria Smith also adapts very well to the `small painting' concept and seems to enjoy it. Her two beach scenes, The Red Umbrella and Annie, in particular, are successful in that even in this reduced scale, they still convey the spaciousness of the shore, an effect that is heightened by her use of figures (Annie, in particular) in the foreground and echoed in the distance. Paget Houses is another interesting composition where she quite daringly highlights a broad stretch of road to offset a row of cottages.

Proctor Martin, who has just held a solo show at the Society of Arts' small gallery, continues his fascination with Turneresque skies. His most striking work, and one that has real atmosphere, is his Bird's Eye View, where they soar over a landscape of brooding browns and verdant grasses.

Ann Proctor's lusciously realised flower portraits are, as usual, a joy to behold. She is a difficult artist to define in that her paintings, so botanically perfect, and usually presented as singular studies against stark white grounds, are in fact, so much more: her Christmas holly berries, for instance, positively glisten, while her pink-tinged White Cedar droops with an almost sensual grace. Her rare ability to paint white on white reaches new heights in Trumpet Flower where the bloom just drifts off into an abstraction.

Helen Daniel who keeps plenty of artistic surprises up her sleeve, presents, this time around, a trio of small Bermuda architectural studies, etched with spare elegance. These, as well as a now to be expected superb handling of gouache in the fresh clarity of colours that characterise her three floral compositions.

There are also works by the popular Polish artist, Jurek Jablonski, whose meticulous yet vibrant renderings of London pubs and stores have made him a perennial favourite at Heritage House, and two colourful mixed media collages by Judith Gardner.

Mark Boden has three larger oil paintings in this section. His Onion Pickers, showing a group of seven men draped about packing cases, so dark as to be almost in silhouette relieved by shafts of dramatic sunlight, reveals a new, sharper technique from this promising artist. It seems reminiscent, however, of a fairly well known archival photograph and if this is the case, should have been attributed.

He has some pleasing marine paintings on show which hanker back to the golden sailing days of Bermuda's past. By far the most striking of these, and very skilfully painted, is his Fishing Boats, Front Street. Viewed from above, Boden has wrapped the quayside scene in a utopian golden glow. This is an interesting composition, with the fish-sellers bringing a sense of animation to the essentially `marine' concept.

Bermuda's own Stephen Card's S.S. Rotterdam , shown in a much smokier New York harbour of the 1930s, shows why he has established himself as a leading marine artist. Painted with the precision that characterises this medium, it is still a highly atmospheric work, brushed in muted colours. There are also two scenes depicting the tug Warren Hastings and Cristobal Colon off Tenerife, the latter revealing Card's ability to handle landscapes -- in this case, a dramatic backdrop of snow-capped mountains.

Last, but certainly not least, is the fascinating series of paintings by renowned marine painter, Ken Marschall, of the ill-fated Bismarck .

Marschall, who has achieved world-wide fame as the documentary painter of the re-discovery of the Titanic has an equally successful parallel career as the background painter for such films as The Terminator and Star Trek.

These latest pictures, painted for the book, The Discovery of the Bismarck, are startlingly photographic in concept. There are three underwater scenes, and a splendid Battle View, which shows the crippled battle ship afire and listing in an angry ocean, guns buckled, and a pall of black smoke billowing from an inferno that eerily lights up the sea. The ominous grey sky is shot with shafts of sun that illumine the tiny, appalled figures on the bow.

This is certainly a show that should be seen and greatly enjoyed. It continues through the New Year.

PATRICIA CALNAN