DOUBLE VISION -- Exhibition of Paintings by Eric and Diana Amos at Heritage House Gallery -- until December 11.

An exhibition by Diana Amos is always cause for celebration and now, in this joint exhibition with her husband, wild-life artist Eric Amos, there is double value for money.

Mrs. Amos, who lectures in Fine Art at the Bermuda College, specialises in watercolour landscapes which are distinguished by faultless draughtsmanship.

Since her husband is renowned for the meticulous detail that is the hallmark of the wildlife artist, an overall sense of highly polished professionalism permeates this show.

As one of the first of the many artists who may be said to have awakened a strong sense of heritage through the depiction of rural landscape and classic Bermudian architecture, Diana Amos remains one of the Island's leading exponents. Realism, imbued with the ever-changing play of light and shadow, provides the focus of her work. Watercolour, one of the most difficult media to master, appears almost serenely simple in her hands. The limpid reflections of window panes, as seen in her Samme's Windows, for instance, is perfectly captured, just as the coloured bottles in Bessie's Old Laundry cast a marvelously rich glow on their workaday surroundings.

Perhaps the essence of her best work, however, is found in her treatment of foliage and an ability to convey the weathered textures of ancient Bermuda buildings. A picture in which she achieves both is Runaway Garden, St.

George's, where a positive cornucopia of palms and greenery tumble over an old, sun-shadowed brick wall. The same quality is seen in Palm Curtains, where great fronds swish across a dusty garden path.

A personal favourite is Grey Harbour, painted on a rainy day, where a trio of birds flap across a cloud-filled sky and over a sea drained of colour. A similar, beautifully understated realisation is apparent in her Study for Verdmont Garden where, unusually for this artist, there is a brooding, abstract quality.

Eric Amos, professional wild-life artist and author/illustrator of the widely-popular Guide to the Birds of Bermuda, says that his career was initially inspired by a trip to the Antarctic. Before that, it seems, he concentrated on abstract expressionism -- an aspect that would never be suspected in the highly stylised work that now flows from his brush.

Mr. Amos places his birds in a habitat landscape, which in this show, is mainly that of Bermuda. A delightful exception is his Autumn in New York, a witty depiction of Song Sparrows perched alongside a road where the city intrudes in the form of a car, and a van on which is printed `Leaves -- you pile them, we'll file them'. Also outside the scope of usual wild-life painting is his Pigeons and Whores, where three city birds with art deco patterns on their dusty feathers gaze down with a crotchety air of disapproval on the street-walking ladies of Greenwich Village.

Back in the pristine landscape of Bermuda, the cavalcade of brightly coloured birds assume a larger-than-life aspect, as the bluebird, short-eared owl and scarlet cardinal hold sway in branches and atop lonely cliffs. Only another birder will, of course, fully appreciate Mr. Amos's technical prowess, but even the layman will appreciate the fine detail and glorious sense of colour in his work.

Port Royal Blues portrays our famous Bermuda bluebird, poised on a fennel stick, high above the South Shore, while the feathers of two chicks-of-the-village blend with the yellow trumpet vines from which they serenade the neighbourhood. There is an air of nocturnal mystery in the splendid portrait of a tawny-toned owl who makes a transitory home amongst a thicket of banyans on a golf course.

Mr. Amos brings into focus another ominous sign of Bermuda's environmental problems with his exquisite portrayal of the wooded warbler, seen amongst the trees of Sears Cave in Smith's Parish. This, he notes, is the only migrant, flying in for an autumn break from North America, which he has managed to paint this year. Because of global warming, and rapid deforestation, the annual mass invasion is, he laments, probably a wonder of the past.

A sad note on which to end, perhaps, but one which makes the painting of our landscapes and their feathered inhabitants all the more timely in their effectiveness as an ecological wake-up call.

PATRICIA CALNAN RUNAWAY GARDEN -- A secluded corner of St. George's provides the title for this watercolour by artist Diana Amos. Her joint show with her husband, wild-life artist Eric Amos, is currently on view at Heritage House.