THOMASVILLE — Wiregrass Gallery artists Kay Cromartie and Terry Arthur will be featured in Southern Expressions, a downtown Thomasville First Friday event this Friday.

Southern Expressions is comprised of Cromartie’s oil and watercolor paintings depicting scenes of the rural southern United States and Arthur’s artistically lathe-turned vessels. The beauty of nature inspires and provides subject matter for both artists.

Cromartie began creating art in her early childhood, drawing on  her love of horses, dogs and life on the South Georgia and North Florida plantations. She attended Florida State University where she obtained a master’s of fine art in education. She spent 26 years teaching high school, sharing with her students her love and appreciation of many forms of art and media. Following her retirement, she began painting full time. The rural countryside of Metcalfe, Cromartie’s home, provides endless inspiration for her paintings of animals, hunt scenes and farm life in the Deep South. Cromartie has a sideline of restoring damaged paintings and frames.

Cromartie’s resume includes numerous awards including the 2011 Colson Calendar award, Best of Show in the 1990 Thomasville Summer Showcase, second place in the Tallahassee City Hall Images of Nature in 1989, City Hall Images of Nature purchase award and award of merit 1990, Bainbridge Artfest purchase award, Carrollton Regional Juried Art Exhibition 1991 purchase award and two honorable mentions from the Valdosta Spring into Art Show. In addition, the Carrollton Museum of Art in Carrollton purchased a mask created by Cromartie. Her expertise is often sought out as she has been asked to judge a number of art exhibits. Her work can also be viewed at www.ironrockstudio.com.

Arthur is self-taught in the art of woodturning, inspired by the works of Don Duden, Melvin Lindquist and mark Lindquist. He produces award-winning turned bowls, vases, hollow forms, designer pens, pencils and letter openers. He studies and enhances the naturral beauty of the wood, highlighting the individual color, grain and texture unique to the individual tree. His work is most noted for the extensive use of inlays of crushed turquoises, malachite, pink coral, copper, bronze, brass and gold leaf. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Mobile Museum of Art and the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, as well as, many private and corporate collections throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. In addition, his work  is on display in the office of the Attorney of the Americas in Washington, D.C. He has also showed at Axminster, the largest and most prestigious woodturning show in Europe. Corporate clients include Arthur Aveling of King Arthur Tools of Tallahassee, Fla. with an exclusive right to refusal of every new piece made with Aveling’s tools, Culpepper Construction Inc. of Tallahassee and the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla.

This show is part of an on-going exhibition series sponsored by the Wiregrass Gallery: An Artist Co-op, to share with the community the art of  local and regional artists.

It is located at 120 N. Broad St. and is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday.

This Friday, the gallery is also open from 6 to 9 p.m.