On a brisk, gray Tuesday morning, pedestrians outside the large storefront window on the corner of Prince and Chestnut hurry past piles of slush on the sidewalk while, inside, Carl Woerner applies subtle touches of color to the petals of a purple iris.

Woerner, co-owner of Pencilworks Studios & Gallery at 154 N. Prince St., is a big fan of the colored pencil, and he painstakingly wields his collection of Prismacolors as he strives for proper shading.

"With oil painting, I was never -- well, I just never got there," Woerner, a 1981 graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, says with a smile.

"So I concentrated on drawing. And that stuck."

Woerner's art -- and more -- will be on display at Pencilworks during the city's First Friday showcase.

The pencil, Woerner says, "has more control. It has subtlety."

It's also unforgiving, he says, because "you can't erase. So you have to be aware of your white space."

Woerner adds, "It's almost the same philosophy as a watercolorist's: layer, layer, layer. It's not as immediate as painting -- by the time the final drawing is done, it could have 10, 12 layers of color. It's like sculpting on paper."

"After Midnight," the iris piece, is part of Woerner's ongoing "secret lives" series. "These two plants will be holding hands by the time I'm done," he says. Another new work, "Lumberjack Conga," is a whimsical drawing of flannel shirts entwined in a dance.

"I could spend my whole life doing collages of leaves or shells, of one thing lying on another," he says. "But not much of my work is straightforward. If you look at it long enough, you'll see stuff in there."

Woerner also does photorealistic portraits, landscapes and streetscapes, often with an underlay of watercolors to give his colors a stronger base.

"We were the rebels," he says of his days at the institute, studying under artist Michael Economos, when the "in" thing was abstractionism, and photorealism seemed a dying art.

Pencilworks, a cozy nook in a keystone location in the heart of Gallery Row, has more to offer than just pencils, however. It also features the work of two jewelry-makers, co-owner Chris Fielding and resident artisan Pat Rosenberger.

Fielding said his original jewelry is set in sterling silver and employs a variety of semi-precious gems, amber drops, freshwater pearls and Blue John, a form of purplish-white calcium fluorite found only on the Derbyshire region of Britain.

"It's getting rarer every day," Fielding says.

The gallery is also hosting an estate show featuring the works of Richard Morton, a Dallas native and military illustrator who died recently at age 83.

Morton's landscapes have a much looser style, capturing the essence of a structure instead of its rigid lines. His palette draws heavily on the desert hues of the American Southwest, where his work is better known.

But for the most part, Woerner says, Pencilworks will focus on his, Fielding's and Rosenberger's art.

They moved their gallery and studios up from Havre de Grace, he says, "because we wanted to be here, in an arts destination town."

The local arts renaissance brings an art-hungry public in droves from local communities and neighboring states, he says. "And the clientele is a little more sophisticated here."

He likes the growing gallery scene, he adds, because "galleries do well together. Galleries are like antiques stores. People want to park and walk."

Exhibit by Carl Woerner

and Christopher Fielding

Opening reception, Friday from 5-8 p.m.

Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Pencilworks, 154 N. Prince St.

393-5157.
www.pencilworksstudio.com