Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Blacksburg line artist Pam Sable went back to art school in 1993 but didn't become a full-time artist until she moved to Blacksburg three years ago.

One of Pam Sable's line drawings adorns a chair in her home.

Pam Sable displays a carpet she created in her line-drawing style in her Blacksburg home. Sable, who creates images from a single line that curves, weaves and flows, has an exhibit at Art Pannonia on Main Street in downtown Blacksburg.

BLACKSBURG -- A single line becomes a dancing couple, a cello player, a mother and child or an alley of oak trees leading to a plantation house.

Blacksburg artist Pam Sable creates line art, images from a single line that curves, weaves and flows. Most of Sable's drawings are black and white, but a few include bright colors. It depends on the subject.

"Many paintings catch the eye with color, and they're very beautiful," Sable said. "But in black and white, it can be hard, because if you want something to stand out, you have to figure out how [to] use more lines and shading."

Because these paintings are mostly black and white, they stand out against the colored ones, said Judy Garbera, owner of Art Pannonia, where Sable is now showing her work.

"The black and white is very popular because we have so much color," Garbera said. "People like to see the contrast."

This is the third or fourth time Sable has had a show in Art Pannonia, Garbera said.

In high school, Sable studied pottery, dance and music and played the cello. She has said she's always been fascinated with monochrome and line art but didn't start creating it until about 1998. She took it up because it was the easiest way to create and spend time with her children.

"It's easy cleanup," Sable said. "When you have kids, that's important."

She still dances and plays the cello, which inspires her art, she said. Many of her paintings include musicians and dancers.

"Sometimes, I'll play the cello a little, then draw a little," she said. "Then I'll go back and play more. I hope it [her art] gives off the impression of movement."

Sable studied design and worked as an illustrator and in advertising. She didn't think she could make a living as a full-time artist.

"Then I never really thought it was practical to be a fine artist, so I studied design," Sable said.

She went back to art school in 1993 but didn't become a full-time artist until she moved to Blacksburg three years ago. Her husband, Edward, encouraged her to try it.

"When something sells, it's a pleasure," Pam Sable said. "I'm very lucky, very privileged to be able to do this. It's an unusual career."

Sable isn't always able to produce the drawing she wants with one line on the first try.

Sometimes she will start drawing something and realize she would have to use more than one line to complete the drawing. So she traces what she's done so far, plans her next step and starts over.

"I have to plan carefully," she said. "I have to plan a skeleton and plan it in one line."

Sometimes the beginning of her drawings can be hard to find, she said, but the line always ends with her signature.