LaRue Haddock and Pamela Randall were friends first, then partners in painting later. Wednesday night, the two embarked on a new adventure: exhibiting their work for the first time.

Arsenic & Old Lace, Haddock and Randall’s show, is one of three exhibits featured this month by Arts of the Pamlico. Haddock, a lifetime resident of eastern North Carolina who lives in Chocowinity, began painting in 1981, before she retired from teaching and became a real estate agent. Originally from eastern Tennessee, Randall always loved to draw and paint, but it was their meeting at Coldwell Banker Coastal Rivers Realty that led to Randall picking up her brushes again.

“When she became a new agent, I was helping her get started. We just got to talking about painting, and I started encouraging her to paint. We get together on Tuesdays, usually at the senior center, and Thursdays at my house,” Haddock said.

Haddock has worked in a variety of mediums: oils, acrylics, watercolors, Chinese brush inks and paints, and pen and ink.

“I’ve always loved looking at clouds and trees — all God’s beauty, really — and I can usually just look at it and paint it,” Haddock said. “I’ve always lived, basically, in eastern North Carolina, and we have a beautiful state.”

Randall’s work is inspired by North Carolina’s landscape, waterfowl, rivers and seascapes, with an occasional mountain and abstract thrown in, according to her bio.

Between the two, a broad range of art will be on display.

“I think it’s a good representation of basically local things,” Haddock said.

While this may be the friends’ first show together, practicality may demand future exhibits.

“After a while, you’ve got all these pictures, and you need to sell them and buy some supplies,” Haddock laughed. “They kind of stack up.”

Arts of the Pamlico is located in the Turnage Theatre at 150 W. Main St., Washington, and is open to the public Tuesdays through Thursdays, 1–6 p.m., Fridays, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., and Sundays for special events.