print, compile and edit his new book `Bermuda -- Aerial Views' and only ten days of it being on sale to recoup all his printing and publishing costs.

Between its launch date of October 10 and October 16, well over 1,600 copies of the book were sold -- and there's still the Christmas buying spree to come.

The book has proved a classic financial success, even though Mr. Stallard says his main purpose was not to make money but to produce a high quality work of art. See Page 14 for a review of the book .

He recovered the substantial cost of hiring a helicopter for nine hours last year before the book even came out by selling 230 aerial photographs of private homes to their owners.

"I was commissioned to do this before I even went up in the helicopter,'' said Mr. Stallard. "That paid for the helicopter, my film and all the developing.'' He hired the helicopter again for another three or four hours earlier this year to take pictures of Bermuda's reefs for an upcoming exhibition of his work at Coconut Rock bar/restaurant in Hamilton. His total bill for 14 or so hours of flying time was $12,000.

"The book has surpassed all my expectations,'' says Mr. Stallard, who has autographed about 1,200 of them. "I didn't expect to sell this many until next May.

"It's a tribute to Bermuda being what it is and to the local people's great interest in seeing everything from a whole new perspective.'' The Bank of Bermuda and the Bank of Butterfield snapped up 220 copies between them and Bermuda's law firms have also been big bulk buyers.

And, of course, the book has proved extremely popular with individuals who want a keepsake of a Bermuda they have never seen before.

But others have been buying the book for more practical reasons, he says.

A fair number of copies are being bought by real estate agents to show off properties they are trying to sell and others are being acquired by landowners who are fighting the results of Government planners' recent rezoning of land on the Island.

`Bermuda -- Aerial Views' had an initial print run of 5,000 and a second edition is already in the offing. The book is on sale at all major book stores, with a retail price of $45.

*** Onto another form of art now and positive proof that the recession has affected Bermuda's elite not one iota came last week when three oil paintings of marine scenes sold for a combined sum of more than $100,000.

The paintings, by English artist J. Stephen Dews, were snapped up within a few hours at a preview of his current exhibition of marine art at the Windjammer Gallery in Hamilton.

Art pieces have been plummeting in value at auction houses and galleries all over world during the last few years, but Bermuda appears to have escaped this downturn in its own modest way.

All three paintings which were sold at the preview, out of a total of eight on display, are understood to have been bought by local buyers.

Windjammer's spokeswoman Mrs. Amanda Outerbridge says: "I don't think recession has had any effect locally on the price of art of this calibre.

"This artist's prices seem to be going up at a rate of 20 percent a year.

They are very good investments.'' Mr. Dews' paintings, most of which are of Bermudian marine scenes, range in price from $29,000 to $47,000. Even his pencil sketches are selling for $850 each, while limited edition prints can be bought for between $200 and $840.

Many people with cash to spare are only too willing to spend it on an artist as skilled as Mr. Dews, says Mrs. Outerbridge.

"He is one of the foremost living marine artists today,'' she said. "This is his first exhibition since 1976 so it's not as if they happen very often.

"He has been at auction a number of times at Sothebys in London a number of times and most recently sold for $52,000 over there. That is a record-breaking price for a marine painting.''