For the next two weeks, there will be an unusual opportunity to view the CV work of over 20 of Britain's leading contemporary artists in a special exhibition at Heritage House.

Says Heritage House owner Mr. Jay Bluck, who is presenting the show in conjunction with the Brian Sinfield Gallery in Oxfordshire, England: "This is the best show I've ever brought in to Bermuda, and I hope that art lovers everywhere will make the most of this chance to enjoy and study for themselves some of Britain's top artists.'' Mr. Sinfield, who heads the Cotswolds gallery, is making his first visit to the Island.

He says he is "delighted'' that his establishment is now making inroads in the international art market. "I am convinced that British artists are so good, they deserve to be more exposed. The painting in France, for instance, is just awful at the moment!'' With recent shows in Jersey, Channel Islands, the Myra Goddard Gallery in Toronto, and another planned for Hong Kong later this summer, his gallery has come a long way since he opened up for business 22 years ago.

The whole thing, he reveals, began as a hobby. "My wife and I were collecting early English watercolours and then moved into contemporary painting and decided to open our own gallery.'' He is quick to emphasise that the painters he represents are traditional painters -- "not especially avant garde -- but artists who understand how to draw, and who understand the tone and balance of colours.'' Many of his artists are Royal Academicians (the national academy of England, formed in 1748) and The New English Art Club (NEAC), founded in 1886 in reaction to the conservatism of the Royal Academy, and led, in the beginning, by famous English painter, Walter Sickert.

Nowadays, much of the rivalry between the two institutions has disappeared, with the Royal Academy, as The Financial Times art critic William Packer, notes "moved back to the centre ground it was always meant to occupy and happy enough to celebrate along with so much else, the work of the radical, the experimental and the young''.

In Mr. Sinfield's view, both organisations demonstrate what is currently best in Britain's contemporary art.

He acknowledges the seeming groundswell reaction against the `modernist' wisdom that a pile of bricks or old car tyres, or an abstract so anonymous that only the artist knows what it's all about (if indeed he does), is the only art worthy of serious attention.

Recently, even in America, there has been a growing insistence that artists need to demonstrate some mastery of draughtsmanship and technical know-how.

"In the boom years, people were buying paintings for investment purposes and that drove the market up to silly prices. You also had a situation where some people just put a bit of paint on a bit of canvas, stuck it in a frame and were able to sell it. This meant a lot of painters were pushed way above their real levels and when the crash came, a lot of them got hurt! But the living, contemporary Academicians -- and artists who are members of other art societies such as the NEAC, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, or the Royal Watercolour Society, were not really affected by the recession.'' Among the artists represented in the show is Fred Cuming, RA, NEAC, one of Britain's most distinguished painters of landscapes, coastal scenes, interiors and still life, whose work is found in major collections worldwide.

"He is one of our senior Academecians and this year, was selected to edit the Royal Academy catalogue.'' Donald Hamilton Fraser RA, has had numerous exhibitions in Europe and America and paints landscapes, still life and ballet dancers.

One of the artists whose use of pastel is quite extraordinary in its clarity and depth of colour is Andrew Hemingway: his remarkable still life studies are to be found in collections in Europe, America and the Far East.

Instead of going off to art school, Robert Wraith went to Florence at the invitation of Pietro Annigoni to study painting, drawing and the technique of fresco.

Often working on a gesso ground, covered with layers of oil, Wraith is gaining recognition as an important portraitist.

Jonathan Poole, on the other hand, is an art dealer who, according to Mr.

Sinfield, is also "an excellent painter''.

He handles the artwork in the estate of the late John Lennon (who used to draw) and is now causing a stir of his own with his animal studies painted in a distinctive `splash' method.

Tom Coates NEAC, who is well known to Bermuda's artists through his workshops here, is a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy and in 1988, won first prize in The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition.

Susan Ryder NEAC, RP, is a distinguished portrait painter, equally well known for her painterly interiors.

Pamela Kay NEAC, who paints in both oil and watercolour and acknowledged as one of Britain's foremost still life and flower painters, was recently the subject of a major publication, `The Art of Pamela Kay'.

One of England's younger painters is Jacqueline Williams, born in 1962 and admitted to the NEAC last year. She specialises in interiors, garden scenes, nudes, and flowers, often working in large scale in oils.

John Ward RA, is one of Britain's most famous portrait painters whose commissions have included members of the Royal Family.

In complete contrast to his oils, he also loves to work in pen and ink and watercolour, depicting town and landscapes.

Elected to the Royal Academy in 1992, Ken Howard has been showered with artistic honours for his work which ranges from interiors to beach and harbour scenes, to flowers and portraits.

With prices from $925 to $9,000, with most falling in the middle range of those figures, Mr. Bluck points out that he hopes as many people as possible, especially working artists, will make a point of visiting the show: "It's a great chance to look at work that's fresh and new and keeping in touch with what's going on in the art world.'' The exhibition of Contemporary British Paintings continues at Heritage House through July 8.

ENGLISH VIEW -- Mr. Brian Sinfield, pictured in Heritage House, where a Contemporary British Painting exhibition features artists from his Oxfordshire gallery. Behind Mr. Sinfield is (left) Jacqueline Williams' The Garden Table and Fred Cuming's A Sussex Fete.