BY PAULA

MONTGOMERY

Special to The Pilot

Southern Pines artist Kim Sobat is the featured artist for October at the Campbell House Galleries.

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Kim Sobat grew up surrounded by an artistic family and always dreamed of following in their footsteps.

She acquired the fundamental skills from the Heron School of Art and Design and the Art League, both in Indianapolis.

After moving to Southern Pines in 2006, Sobat was able to devote more time to painting. She knew right away that she had found a place to call home and is constantly finding artistic inspiration in the town's tree-lined streets, parks and quaint storefronts.

She currently serves as the youth program director for the Arts Council of Moore County.

Sobat works exclusively with oil and acrylic paints.

"I never tire of working with oil and acrylic as they can always be counted on to communicate my visions," says Sobat. "My style is generally loose and free-flowing, and I don't feel the need to give the viewer every tiny detail. In my mind, the role of the artist is to depict the real essence of the subject or scene and let the viewer fill in the details."

It is this vision that inspired the name for Sobat's exhibit "Windows," because it describes the way in which an artist takes an inspirational view or panorama and crops it down to the most essential or interesting proportion.

Recently, Sobat has begun painting on a much larger scale.

"I've always wanted to paint on large canvases," she says. "They allow me to be even looser in style and have a lot of presence. People are now purchasing homes with high ceilings, and the larger paintings help to warm up the space and make a real statement."

Sobat's exhibit will feature a bit of impressionist work along with abstract pieces. She has always been inspired by the works of the Hudson River School painters and employs their classic color palette even in many of her abstracts.

"I love the warmth and depth of those colors," says Sobat, "because they come from nature and are always comfortable and relatable to any setting."

The exhibit will also showcase Sobot's new painting series, "Wonder Words." As a child, her son had a handful of words he made up and used consistently.

"I never knew what they meant," says Sobat, "but he said them with such ease that I felt they really meant something to him. So the 'Wonder Words' paintings are my attempt to describe what I envisioned words like 'duregicide,' 'seminamow,' 'shynakonk" and others to mean."

"Windows," featuring works by Kim Sobat, opens Friday, Oct. 5, with a reception to meet the artist from 6 to 8 p.m.

The reception, hosted by Billie Ertter of Hair Biz at the Cottage Salon, is free and open to the public.

The exhibit is on display through Oct. 26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The galleries will be closed on Monday, Oct. 8, in observance of Columbus Day.

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

For more information about the exhibit, contact the Arts Council of Moore County at (910) 692-2787 or visit the website www. mooreart.org.