Windjammer Gallery, Hamilton.

Visitors to the current exhibition of oil paintings at the Windjammer Gallery will be richly rewarded. The blend of realistic and impressionist styles are represented offer a range of images that will please a range of tastes.

Diana Amos has departed from her usual medium of watercolours to paint some fine canvases. In this show, she present pictures -- 15 in all -- that focus on architectural aspects, oceanic viewpoints and slices of Bermuda life. All are subject that are the essence of Bermuda, and Mrs. Amos has captured new perspectives in her latest works. Her largely detailed canvases contrast against the paintings of her co-exhibitors who employ an impressionistic approach.

`Shell Roses' is a delicate piece that has an air of compelling softness. The eye is drawn to the pale walls and roof line of a Bermudian building that is graced with the pale pink blossoms for which the piece is named.

Harmonising with the focal point are a pleasing blend of varying greens from surrounding plants, including the screw palm and locust and wild honey, which are full of texture and whose leaf shapes are a pleasing spectacle.

In `Hazy Afternoon', she has departed from her familiar close-up style. Taken from a hilltop and impressionistic perspective, the painting of land, sea and islands beyond are seen from a distance. Under a successfully captured shroud of diffused light that prevails during those high humidity days in Bermuda, a roadway wends its way down to a house perched near the sea. It is one of her best in this show.

`Sound Glimpse' is a work that takes in much, but with a simplistic approach.

The eye is first drawn to a small portion of a Bermuda home and its surrounding environs of palms, paw paws and fiddlewood. But there is another perspective that Mrs. Amos has cleverly included, and that is the vista of the islands and water below.

Her view of `Vivienne's Garden' captures a tranquil corner of carefully choreographed blossoms and vegetation that blend with Bermuda stone walls and pillars. Sheilagh Head's treatment of the same subject is vastly different, and it is interesting to see the two approaches. Mrs. Head's `The Garden' is done in her wondrous impressionist style, with looser brush strokes creating a compelling mood; her view is of a smaller area, but the canvas is larger than that of Mrs. Amos.

Appreciation for the same subject occurs again in this exhibition, with Giverny -- Claude Monet's lovingly created gardens outside Paris -- being the focus. Susan Curtis and Mrs. Head made separate visits to the Impressionist master's home. The results of their journeys to this idyllic garden are magical and they are clustered together, around the corner from the gallery entrance. By nature of their pastel colours, these paintings echo the colours of Bermuda and beautifully complement the exhibition.

Having last exhibited in 1987, it is a pleasure to see the work of Mrs. Curtis in a show. Her `Giverny Border' is a symphony of colours: varying hues of pink tulips and rambling roses are the focus. It is supported by patches of greens and yellows that are effectively blended together with varying sizes of brush or palette-knife strokes. The composition of `Pink Roses at Giverny' is a delicate balance of the blossoms, offset by the pink walls and green wooden door and fence.

The composition in `Road to Cavillon' is superb. A tree-bordered roadway invites the viewer on a restful journey to some building beyond. Dappled sunlight filters through the trees and all is captured in bold brush strokes, which create a peaceful effect.

Another gem is `Roadside Poppies', hanging near the gallery entrance. A band of rich red flowers dance under some shady trees in this small canvas. It is an intimate look at a small corner of countryside France. Mrs. Curtis also went to New Hampshire to paint, and the Eastman Pond work is an array of bold autumnal colours with a background of mountains conjuring up the feeling of the crisp air that accompanies that season.

Mrs. Curtis has painted several water scenes of Bermuda with great success, particularly in `At Anchor', a pleasing combination of delicate shadows, water reflections and a punt moored near the rocky shoreline.

In this show, Mrs. Head's work has soared to an even higher level of excellence. Her view of the world is interpreted with a passion which shines forth in canvas after canvas. Unfortunately, her larger works are difficult to appreciate in this gallery because they require some distance to be fully appreciated. When there are few people around to interrupt the viewing, they can be studied somewhat more easily.

Monet's garden has obviously stimulated Mrs. Head's emotions and imagination.

Her masterful executions of two scenes are especially spellbinding. In `The Garden, Giverny', she captures the light's delicate softness which is cast over an array of colourful flowers -- purples, pinks, hints of orange -- offset by the varying shades of greens and blues and a glimpse of the pink house peeping through a shady stand of trees. `Monet's Window' is an intimate look at where the legendary painter lived. The fence and porch are set in the midst of a profusion of flowers, creating a magical combination.

In `Rooftops' Mrs. Head celebrates the magnificence of light. There are several shadowed planes that contrast against the bright roof lines, and a long shadow on one portion of roof underscores the subtlety that creates the mood.

`Somerset Colours' is set in a tranquil corner where the homes seem positioned with the purpose of appreciating the colours of the vegetation. A large canvas, it reveals the balance of Bermuda's architecture with its natural state. Sunlight highlights the right corner, but light is delicately sprinkled on the houses and throughout the field.

`Longpoint Lane' draws in the viewer to appreciate afternoon light and shadows that stream across the quiet byway that is quintessential old Bermuda. Roof lines with vegetation rising behind and an old wall play a big role in this work which is a new and successful style for Mrs. Head. `On the Way to Dockyard' has a similar atmosphere, and the two would make a wonderful pair.

Varying hues of turquoise and darker blue blend together from the foreground to the shoreline in `Flatts'. A tiny cottage surrounded by trees in the background greets the sea below and beyond in this smaller, gem-like work.

Another sea-dominated scene that achieves great success is her `St. George's'.

Its big sky and dominant patchwork of blue harbour waters are interrupted by a sloping hillside where pastel-covered homes reach to a shoreline that stretches all the way to the Town Cut.

The talent in this exhibition is a pleasure to behold and the combination of styles makes for a visually outstanding show. Each artist has produced pieces of which they can be justifiably proud.

JUDITH WADSON