First Friday is about the only time you'll find all of the artists from Gallery on the Row in the same place at the same time. It is one of the busiest times at the Broad Street art business.

The chief executive of the 5-year-old gallery is a retired engineer who volunteers his time and managerial expertise to help the collection of artists. Rich Borgatti is also the husband of one of its partners, Betsy, who displays and sells pottery in Gallery on the Row.

"Working with artists is really a lot of fun," Mr. Borgatti said. "Engineers you can tell what to do and they'll go do it. You can't do that with artists. They have to want to do it."

There are 10 partners in the co-op, a collection of painters, drawers and photographers. Other artisans have displays, too, of pottery, glass and decorative pens.

"We can't do without Rich," said Pat Warren, a former president of the gallery and one of its founders. "And he's going to be modest ... Rich quietly works to keep Artists' Row afloat. He is president of the row and the gallery. He also works with the larger arts community to build downtown."

Mr. Borgatti is in his retirement from Savannah River Site, but he's not really retired.

"I drink a lot now," he replied in jest.

"And he keeps all the women in this gallery rowing the same direction," Ms. Warren said.

"Now, that's the biggest challenge," he said.

First Fridays are also monthly business meeting days for Gallery on the Row. What the artists lack in business smarts, they make up for in creative business ideas, he said.

"Tears sometimes happen; we get emotional," Mrs. Borgatti said.

Cooperation

Gallery on the Row is set up as a co-op, meaning all the partners share in the profits and workload. They all have a vote as to whether others get to join the business, and they have an equal amount of space to display their work.

Because no one is an employee, there is no payroll. There's a lease payment to make, though, in addition to payment for utilities and supplies.

A small original painting can be bought for about $50, Ms. Warren said. The most expensive painting in the gallery costs $3,000.

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are the gallery's busy days.

"We have a lot of people here on conventions that come through the art galleries," Ms. Warren said.

Gallery on the Row also does layaway.

"People come off the street and have no idea they are going to fall in love with an original painting and may not have the money at the time," Ms. Warren said.

The gallery has shipped paintings to destinations across the country and other parts of the world. Ms. Warren knows one of her paintings is hanging in London.

"We have a lot of regulars from the Augusta area. We see a lot of people come through on First Friday," she said. "They don't purchase that night; generally they come back."

Ms. Warren said Artists' Row is a destination unto itself. The row is a block-long area on Broad Street populated by art galleries.

"When people know they are coming to Augusta, they look up art to see where they can see art. Artists' Row comes up," Ms. Warren said.

The row is also a support network. Art on Broad does framing for Gallery on the Row, she said.

All of the artists on Artists' Row quietly donate items to benefit community causes, Ms. Warren said.

"All of us are benevolent with churches and schools," she said.

Growing up, Ms. Warren spent a lot of time in her family's car dealership, Sunbelt Nissan, and she is a co-owner of the Washington Road business.

"Pat has that unusual combination of artist gift and business mind," said Carol Kelly Dorn, a portrait painter and drawer who has been with the gallery for four months.

Ms. Dorn has some experience in business, running the Book Exchange with her husband, but she said the business brains belong to her spouse.

"I can change the light bulbs, but I can't balance the books," Ms. Dorn said.

The artist and instructor said she likes the co-op set up more than trying to sell her works in a consignment store.

"If you are just consignment, you don't have that sense of ownership," Ms. Dorn said. "There is no commitment to make it work. We have an equal say in things (in the co-op).

"I'm learning how to do the business without having to be totally responsible for it."

Cards and smaller prints of paintings are the best sellers and are keeping the gallery financially afloat during the recession, Ms. Dorn said.

The 3,000-square-foot gallery also plays host to wedding receptions and baby showers.

"It is a destination point," Ms. Dorn said.

The building at 1016 Broad St. can be traced back to a grocery store in 1865. Before becoming the home of Gallery on the Row in May 2004, it was Fahnoe-Weigte Studio -- beginning in 1994 at the genesis of Artists' Row.

The building's history, as gathered by Mr. Borgatti, includes being home to a meat market, a sewing-machine repair shop, a jeweler, a residence and a television-repair shop.

Ms. Warren is one of the charter members of Gallery on the Row.

"There were three of us who were in a smaller gallery down the street. This building came available. We saw a perfect opportunity to bring more artists downtown," she said.

Her work was displayed in Broad Strokes for three years, which was once down the street from Gallery on the Row until it relocated to Columbia County.

The number of artists in Gallery on the Row has changed over the years. Two of her original partners are still with the gallery: Georgene Wright and Barbara Whetstone Fox.

Ms. Warren said respect makes the co-op work well. All of the partners were voted into the business based on their portfolio, so there was a respect of their artistic abilities from the start.

Even those who aren't excited about the business style at first soon catch on, Ms. Warren said.

"As my dad used to say: 'There's nothing wrong with a business that a few sales won't handle.' "

Her father was Jim Watson, the founder of Sunbelt Nissan, which started out selling motorcycles before becoming at Datsun dealership.

'Artily'

One of Ms. Warren's favorite words is "artily."

"I hear people say 'artsy,' and I knew that wasn't a term," she said. "When you create something, you want it to look like a piece of art instead of something playful. When it is artily, it is at another level."

Ms. Warren is often asked whether she's run out of things to paint.

"There's not enough time to get done everything I want to paint," Ms. Warren said. "I am framing things constantly in my head."

One of the reasons she has a garden in her backyard is to have colorful subjects close at hand.

She took formal art classes while attending the University of South Carolina in pursuit of a nursing degree. She worked as a nurse in the operating room of University Hospital until the late 1980s.

She said that when she took some weeklong classes in painting, her art hit a different level.

She felt she had an obligation, because there was interest and talent, to share the work with others.

"I think that is expected of us," she said.

When her son, Todd, began working at the car dealership, she said she decided the business would be fine and that she could pursue other things.

Nursing, a car dealership, family and painting, where did she find the time?

"I don't watch TV," she said. "You do find the time for the things that you love. Through all of that, I still painted."

She said visiting the Louvre in 1990 had the biggest impact on her, mostly the style of French impressionists.

"I wanted to do the loose representational kind of art, not photo realism," she said.

All the artists in Gallery on the Row have an inventory of artwork to hang in their spaces to replace pieces that are purchased.

Ms. Warren is a little low on inventory; she's been busy with commissions.

One project is due at the end of the month, nine paintings to hang in the cabin under construction at Champion's Retreat in Columbia County. They are paintings of the holes and will be sent to Arnold Palmer for his signature, Ms. Warren said.

Andrew Vincent, on the other hand, has 30 or 40 paintings in inventory.

"I don't call it a hobby; it feels more serious than that," said Mr. Vincent, who's been a part of the gallery for three years.

Like Mr. Borgatti, he's a longtime engineer at SRS. He didn't start painting until 2001, though he said he thought about picking up a brush for years before.

He's a member of the Aiken artist's guild and participated in a few local shows. He was lured to Gallery on the Row by a tour of galleries.

Mr. Vincent said he works in spurts -- sometimes if he's busy, the spurt is 5 minutes long.

"It's not easy. I've got a family with young kids, so there is a lot of other pressures to draw my attention. It is a blessing to be able to work (in a co-op). I can't spend as much time and effort as the others here," he said.

Mr. Vincent's space in Gallery on the Row is dominated by oil and watercolor paintings of scenes from his native Oregon. There's a painting of Augusta's Partridge Inn, too.

What he likes about the gallery is the camaraderie and the support in the ups and downs of being an artist.

"Mostly it is an encouragement just to continue painting," he said.

Ms. Warren said artists should surround themselves with people that help them keep going. For her, the support person is her husband, Charlie, who works as a home-improvement contractor.

"A support person is very important. Charlie offers that. He critiques, but he also is the supporting person," she said.

Forrest Roberts is the sole photographer in the gallery. His wife, Carol Sue Roberts, has been a part of the gallery for years as a painter.

"My wife has been in it awhile and they need a photographer," he said. "Photography is a tough business."

With digital cameras available, people can shoot their own photos and frame them, making it hard to sell photos. Mr. Roberts has a wall of prints involving wildlife and Africa.

"Can't make a living at it, but it is a lot of fun," the former commercial airline pilot said.

His biggest seller is a photo of a sunset at Thurmond Lake. "I was fishing and I dropped my gear. You don't see that very often."

In the center of them all is the non-artist, Mr. Borgatti.

"I would love to get into art, but I can't draw a straight line," he said.

During his mid-life crisis, he went through a period of interest in art, buying books to be a photographer.

"I managed to not quit my day job."

Reach Tim Rausch at (706) 823-3352 or timothy.rausch@augustachronicle.com.