Three rooms filled with pictures consisting mainly of stylised views of Bermuda's windows and shutters, may not seem particularly prepossessing as a theme for a solo exhibition. It is a measure of Karen Phillips Curran's talent, then, that this is a show that casts its own fascinating spell.

She is an artist who is able to use a fine clarity of line in her architecturally-rooted studies as a means to an artistic end, her strength in draughtsmanship being matched by her abilities as a watercolourist; the undoubted realism is countered by a sometimes quirky eye for composition that incorporates rather delightfully, an unexpected angle of emphasis, and an always intriguing palette.

She is perhaps unusual as a visiting artist (from Ottawa, for the last seven or eight years) in that she is apparently not seduced by the flamboyancy of the Island's semi-tropical colours, but seeks out instead, the pastels and subtle effects of sun-washed surfaces that have become an integral part of Bermuda's architectural appeal. To walk through the three rooms devoted to her work is a pleasurable experience, rather like walking through a sunny Bermuda afternoon.

Karen Curran manages also to evoke a certain air of mystery through her delicate tracery of branches and leaves, shadowed against walls and shutters, or sometimes it is a shutter or doorway swinging open, revealing a glimpse of curtain lace dancing in a silent breeze. In Winsor With Lace, this lace pattern is echoed through the blue-tinged fronds of palms that brush across the surface.

White Shutters with Aloe, its softly-textured pink walls punctured by a cluster of spiky plants in one corner, achieves an air of perpetual summer through the blue sky and wispy clouds reflected in a sliver of window pane, as does another view of Winsor, which becomes a powerful colour study of blue shutters echoed in the paler hue of the sky.

She continues this colour theme in Blue, Blue, using a skillful blend of deepish blue for the shutters, egg-shell for the walls seen against a summery sky. This may be said to be typical of her best work, for in this picture we have billowing curtains, silhouettes of shadowy plants and, to top it all off, the unique `eye-brow' rain-deflecting device curving above the window.

Her show has been imaginatively hung, with several works forming obvious pairs, from colour or compositional perspectives, as in Printers Shades and the Red Shutter in dramatic post-box red. This total concentration on the shutters takes on an almost surreal aspect in Palm in the Way, where the green, wooden structure is seemingly clasped in an encircling expanse of branches.

But it's not all pastels; the beautifully painted woody vine that covers her Stone Wall and especially in Yard Gate with Palms, there is an altogether bolder palette of blue woodwork, green palms and rich yellow walls.

A Bit of Pink is one of the most successful colour studies, where Karen Curran's subtlety comes into full play: you have to look long and hard, past the cheerful shade of the turquoise shutter and reflective blue sky, to realise that the walls are washed with the very palest of pale pink.

This second solo show for the Windjammer confirms that this Canadian artist's preoccupation with Bermudian fenestration does, indeed, capture the perennial charm of Bermuda's architectural heritage.

PATRICIA CALNAN ARCHITECTURAL ESSENCE -- Karen Phillips Curan with her work at the Windjammer Gallery.