The Campbell House Galleries' April exhibit will feature local artists Beth E. Roy and Kim Sobat.

Beth Roy's artistic offerings include oils of landscapes and some commissioned pieces. Kim Sobat's works concentrate on the lush landscapes of the Sandhills area. The exhibit opens Friday, April 3, and runs through April 27.

Growing up in rural Michigan, artist Beth Roy acquired the foundation that allows her paintings to come to life today. Her first foray into art revealed a natural talent for manipulation of color and texture. Roy commonly expresses herself by using local scenes to translate rural landscapes to canvas; she also takes advantage of her many travels to provide inspiration for her pieces.

She began riding horses at an early age, and her lifelong relationship with them has allowed her to capture them beautifully in many different mediums. Body language is a critical component of her compositions. She has been able to capture the personalities of animals and now people in many of her recent works.

Her professional art schooling was obtained at Austin Peay State College in 1986-87 and at Christopher Newport College in 1989. In 1986 she married Tom Roy, at the time a lieutenant colonel in the Army. Their life together has afforded many moves, and with each move, Roy's artistic style has been further enhanced and expanded.

Initially a watercolor artist for 10 years, she became disenchanted with the way that medium loses its vibrancy over time. Upon moving to Southern Pines in 2001, she decided to paint again with oil. She has done many commissioned works and has paintings in several galleries as well as the ACMC Fine Arts Festival. In 2006, Roy was awarded an honorable mention for oils in the ACMC Festival and then in 2008 was awarded first place in oils for "Water Lilies."

In 2006 she was able to stop working part-time and devote her full attention to her art and farm. She and her husband live on a farm in Vass with two horses, two cats and a dog. When she is not painting, riding her horses or tending to the farm, she enjoys biking, Jazzercise, reading, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.

Kim Culver Sobat grew up surrounded by an artistic family, including her mother, father and grandfather, who was a commercial artist, gifted painter and illustrator. Sobat began her formal training in art in the eighth grade when she was selected to attend Saturday art classes with area college-aged students at John Herron Art School in downtown Indianapolis, Ind. In the early 1990s, she took an art class that reignited her interest in art. After marrying her high school sweetheart and moving to Fairbanks, Alaska, Sobat's preferred medium became oil for its rich pigments and smooth texture.

Soon reassigned to Fort Bragg, Sobat found a new outlet in digital art while caring for her twins. She returned to school to develop this new medium, where her interest in computer graphics grew to include Web design. While she enjoyed computer work, she missed the grassroots satisfaction of creating art with her hands, so she enrolled in a painting class at a local art studio, again refining her talents.

After a move to Southern Pines, Sobat joined the Artists League of the Sandhills, where she took several painting classes, focusing on Southern Pines' charming townscapes, and even completed several commissioned pieces. She opened the Vineland Fine Art Gallery in downtown Southern Pines, where she featured a dozen other local artists as well her own work. Location problems and market conditions have resulted in the closing of the gallery, but have allowed more time for painting.

While most of her work is representational realism, Sobat is beginning to dabble in abstract painting as well. She generally employs a colorful palette and her subject matter is largely landscapes. Enamored with the grandeur of the stately pines of the Sandhills area, Sobat's newest works pay tribute to the area forests and fauna. When not painting, her other interests are antiques, traveling, volunteering, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.

The show opens Friday, April 3, with a reception to meet the artists from 6 to 8 p.m. The Southern Pines Civic Club will host the reception, which is free and open to the public. The exhibit is on display through April 27, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekdays, and from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday, April 18.

The Campbell House Galleries are located at 482 East Connecticut Avenue, Southern Pines.

For information, call 692-4356.