Two local artists in the driver's seat for upcoming Emporium exhibit

“’36 Ford Roadster,” oil on canvas, by Bobbie Crews

“’36 Ford Roadster,” oil on canvas, by Bobbie Crews

The exhibit "Headlights and Streetlights" includes oil paintings of vintage roadsters and pastel studies of vibrant street scenes. Those subjects are the framework in which Knoxville artists Bobbie Crews and Mike C. Berry paint mood and personality tinged with nostalgia.

The exhibit is at The Balcony of The Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay St., Feb. 5-26.

Crews will display seven to eight oils of classic automobiles in bright, rich colors. Most are large, from 2 foot square to 40 by 60 inches. In one, a 36-by-36-inch work of a 1936 Ford roadster, clouds and trees reflect in a fender's curve. The images are realistic but a closer study finds abstract curves and images.

Crews paints from photos of cars she and husband, photographer Clay Thurston, take on their travels.

"My pieces show real subjects, and most people can relate to them. But as they look more they can see abstractions in the work," she says.

Crews is best known for her portraits of people and her large murals. While she's been fascinated with vintage cars for years and has included them in murals, this is her first dedication to the vehicles in fine art. She's looking to create a portfolio of the work and hopes to do commissioned paintings for car collectors.

Berry will display eight to 10 cityscapes and landscapes in "Headlights and Streetlights." Most are pastels, although he will show two oils. His work is smaller than Crews'; his paintings include scenes that are 18-by-24 and 12-by-22-inches. For "Headlights and Streetlights," Berry's including new pastels of highway scenes in which cars seem to speed and roadsides and medians are blurs of color. Another piece was recently part of the Japan International Artists Society exhibit.

Berry is known best for his cityscapes and landscapes, often done in pastels, that bend or tweak the realistic perspective of a scene. Streets are often bathed in light; buildings sometimes tend to lean or sway. His work has been used in a Pilot Food Mart billboard, and his "Spring in the City" was the 2007 Dogwood Arts Festival Limited Edition Print.

The scenes Berry creates are of real places but with the feel of any place. He points to his pastel of a downtown Knoxville street scene near Krutch Park and says, "This is my hometown. But I try to make this so that if you are from somewhere else you see a cafe scene, nightlife, an image that you can relate to. I try to convey the visual moods of a city rather than the realistic impression of a street."

Conveying a mood, feeling or era is common ground for Berry and Crews. For each, there's some nostalgia in their paintings.

"It's not just about painting cars but the character in those cars and our relationship to them. It's about the time period, the '30s through the '50s. And the mood, the memories," Crews says. "These cars have so much character. You wonder if they could talk, what they could tell you they have seen?"

"It's the same with old buildings. Who walked those streets? Who lived there?" Berry says. "Whether it's an old car or an old building, we each infuse it with our own meaning and emotions, and make it beautiful."

Amy McRary may be reached at 865-342-6437.

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