*** Another summer nearly over, another annual show at Dockyard with a horticultural theme to see.

I've been doing these reviews for -- gosh is it really two years now? -- and sometimes it can get a bit testing to come up with some new observation to make.

Not that that's my fault -- blame the artists I say.

Then again, that's not to say that there isn't plenty here that catches the eye and knocks ones' socks off.

Neither is it all the same genre, and once again this show's contributors have managed to writhe themselves free from the straitjacket theme of the show, come up with a host of different outlooks, perspectives and interpretations of what `Up the Garden Path' means to them.

Another thing going for this show, as the centre's curator Shona Ashmore pointed out, there's a whole mish-mash of different stylistic influences and mediums. Instead of being confronted with row upon row of paintings of garden vistas there is instead a wonderful range of sculptures, ceramics and collages to go with the more conventional watercolours and oils.

So why the gripe? Well, it's just that these shows seem to attract the same people year in year out. That's probably not surprising but it would be a breath of fresh air to see some new blood coming through.

Example: I've forgotten how many times I've gushed on about how fantastic Amy Evans is. Actually probably not enough because she really is a superb painter as she once again demonstrates here. When's the one woman show coming Amy? But although I wouldn't dare go as far as to say familiarity breeds contempt, there comes a point when one is no longer surprised or inspired by what one sees, regardless of how brilliant Amy's work is. Yes it's gorgeous, richly textured, sumptuous, atmospheric, technically gob-smacking and all the rest of it. But what more can one say? There's a stack of artists who fit into the same -- or very similar category.

Helen Daniel is another one whose talent cannot be denied and her paper mache designs are, as ever, wonderful.

Jon Mills has produced three beautiful watercolours in his usual controlled style, Joyce Beale has produced another one of her splashy batiks.

I'm not knocking any of these painters at all and I would quite gladly hang any one of their works on my wall. It's just that, after a while one gets a terrible sense of deja vu. If this review takes on all the appearances of going through the motions maybe that's a reflection of what I felt walking through the gallery.

Maria Evers-Smith is another well-established painter who is well represented here, (Amy Evans has five paintings on display, Helen Daniel has half-a-dozen). Actually Maria Evers-Smith is one artist who has gone out on a limb to develop and diversify.

Dockyard art show I saw some prints of her work of a few years ago and they are startlingly different to what you see here. The only problem is, you get the impression that she is going out of her way and trying too hard to be different, bowing to the vagaries of fashion and style without really painting what she sees, feels or believes. Ooh -- some people just can't win can they? And this week's winner of the Most Off the Planet Head in the Clouds Delusions of Grandeur statuette goes to ...Susan Connoly for her watercolour flower studies. I saw this same collection -- or a very similar one -- at some Women Artists-type show at City Hall earlier in the year and mentioned that they weren't bad in an amateurish, I've just decided to take up painting as a hobby sort of way -- they certainly stood out from the rest of the show, which was held to raise money for charity.

Unfortunately, when raising money for herself, Ms Connoly seems to think that Bermuda has the same rate of inflation as Weimar Germany. $1,400 is just completely off the scale for a painting that lacks any technique whatsoever.

Ironically, or perhaps deliberately, placed next to Ms Connoly's collection is a far superior flower study by Ann Proctor, painted with a great deal of skill and observation as well as love and care no doubt. And it's half the price.

If artists don't want to sell their work, why not simply put an NFS sticker on it rather than an inflated price tag? It only encourages others to go to the same tailor as that gullible King bloke in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.

All in all a pretty above-standard show (which is actually pretty standard for Dockyard exhibitions), with plenty of variety but nothing that surprises.