VALDOSTA — Many area art patrons may not recognize Fay Bridges Hyatt, but they know her work when they see her faces.

Hyatt can paint anything and paint it well, as her current Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts exhibit testifies. But she is best known for her portrait paintings.

Walk through the Price-Campbell Foundation Gallery and many faces stare back at visitors. There’s the Lucille series of a woman in a wide-brimmed hat. Many of the portraits are of women and girls of all ages.

Hyatt has a delicate, yet determined, way with paints and capturing not only likenesses, but the spirit of a person, revealed through the eyes, a smile, an expression. A Rembrandt quality shines through several of her canvases.

“My strongest inclination in art is to draw and paint people ... their many characteristics ... to convey personality and dignity, humor and change ... to catch the human spirit,” Hyatt notes in an artistic statement. “This is the greatest motivation in my art.”

She has mounted several Valdosta shows, including past exhibits in the arts center, Smith Northview Hospital, The Valdosta Daily Times Southern Artists League Artist of the Month, as well as participation in exhibits across the nation. Her work is part of many permanent collections. She was commissioned to paint the portrait of Parker Greene as part of the dedication of Moody Air Force Base’s Parker Greene Base Support Center.

Recently, Hyatt and her daughter, Jolie, opened Downtown Valdosta’s Kaleidoscope Gallery, 123 N. Ashley St.

Kaleidoscope best defines the variety and diversity of her work, but it is her faces that remain her signature.

“A portrait has the capacity to capture likeness ... feeling ... and character, while enhancing your décor with beautiful movements of paint and brushstrokes and color,” Hyatt notes. “A work of art ... a favored possession.”

GALLERY

Artist Fay Bridges Hyatt’s work is in the Price-Campbell Foundation Gallery, along with Best of Spring Into Art, Sallie and Harmon Boyette Gallery; artist Barbara Payne Ward’s exhibit, Josette’s Gallery; Valdosta Photo Competition, Jerry Tillman Gallery; the Boys and Girls Club, Roberta George Children’s Gallery.

Where: Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, 527 N. Patterson St.

When: These shows run through Aug. 7.

Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; closed Sundays and Mondays with exception of opening reception evenings.