The Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard Lets face it, we all hate looking at other people's holiday snaps. Those boring landscape shots, the views from the balcony of the hotel apartment -- "and this is Pedro, our taxi driver, ever such a friendly man''.

Fortunately visitors to the Arts Centre at Dockyard won't be subjected to that kind of ordeal over the next month or so.

While the imagery may be mainly exotic in nature, it's also interesting to see how much artistic license exhibitors believe they can get away with when they don't want to stay too close to the chosen theme.

Scott Stallard is one photographer who has taken the theme of the show literally, which is hardly surprising for such a well-travelled man.

Stallard focuses his lens on mountain gorillas in Uganda and Dani tribesmen in Indonesia.

But it is his series of black and white studies of Inuit hunters that are the most compelling and are able to transport the viewer to the icy wastelands of the northern hemisphere.

It's strange how a painter can produce works that are inherently bad, at least from a technical point of view, and at the same time, create something else that is simple sublime and exquisite.

Two watercolours by Molly Smith illustrate the point.

`Snow in the Cotswolds' is badly composed with the contrasting textures of tree and snow badly rendered. All in all, something that you might be pleased with had your 12-year-old produced but not something worth forking out $475 for.

The other watercolour, hanging directly below, is a complete contrast. Had `Sahara Desert' been the only entry submitted by Ms Smith I would have said she is a painter of great skill with a wonderful eye for colour and harmony.

An avenue of palm trees silhouetted in the African twilight are simply depicted and the whole composition captures the atmosphere of the place beautifully.

Another highlight of the show is `High Noon at Alhambra' a watercolour by Amy Evans, a painter of consistently high quality.

One always gets the impression she is working in a variety of media, so richly textured are her canvasses.

By contrast R.A.R. Joe Smith `The Silos' is a wonderfully simple but beautifully drawn pen and ink study while `If Pigs Could Fly' by Jean Rodriquez and `Old Baggage' by Kendra Ezekiel are bound to raise a smile.

Because the theme of the exhibition is so wide, it's not surprising that there's plenty of variety in this show, although unfortunately that applies to quality as well as subject matter and media.

Nevertheless, while there's a fair amount of mediocrity here, the one or two highlights make it well worth seeing. The show runs until May 6.

Gareth Finighan Arctic imagery: Bermuda photographer Scott Stallard's imagery of Inuit hunters are the most compelling are able to transport the viewer to the icy wasteland of the northern hemisphere . . .''