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Steamboat Springs — When artists and good friends Nancy Jeffrey and Renee Fox set their drawings side by side, it was as if they had showed up at a party wearing the same dress.

“We were doing a cohesive show without having discussed it,” said Jeffrey, a Steamboat Springs resident and professional painter.

Jeffrey’s pencil-on-paper drawings of soft insects and jungle-like botanical scenes wove perfectly with Fox’s colored-pencil abstract florals, an interaction the two artists noticed immediately when they first met 15 years ago.

Now, with a joint show at K. Saari Gallery this month called “Draw Me,” their two styles meet in a symbiosis of soft graphite and saturated colors.

“They absolutely feed off each other,” said gallery owner Kimberly Saari, who represents both artists as well as Fox’s husband, Kenneth Ober. “There’s a really beautiful flow and really amazing technique. These women are phenomenal drawers.”

When the two first met in Washington, D.C., in 1997, Jeffrey hired Fox to paint murals with her. And working so closely together — literally side by side — they were inspired by each other’s art as well as their life outlook and personalities.

“Nancy loves life like no one I know,” Fox said.

Jeffrey said she admired Fox’s whimsical exterior but saw a serious artist lurking beneath the surface.

“We both got hit hard by the recession,” Jeffrey said. “But as long as we’re still standing at the end ...”

The pair said they’re happy when there are some works left over after a show — it means they can trade pieces and hang them in each other’s homes.

Stories intertwine

Also this month, the gallery’s back room features a special exhibition of drawings by Gabriella Dobo called “Concentric.”

Dobo’s story intertwined with Fox and Jeffrey’s, when she was living in Chile at about the time that Fox and Jeffrey were working on a commissioned mural on a Steamboat couple’s boat near Valdivia this past fall.

When Fox had to return to her home in Los Angeles, Jeffrey called in Dobo to help finish the mural.

Dobo’s work is made from hundreds of fine lines drawn by simple Bic pens, with which she applies uneven pressure to create interlocking geometric shapes and designs.

Although Fox and Dobo often work in drawing, Jeffrey primarily has been a painter.

She said it was Fox’s inspiration that led her to understand the power of drawing and exhibit a new side of her work in “Draw Me.”

“I never thought of drawing as an ultimate fine art medium until I met Renee,” she said. “Seeing her beautiful drawings makes me want to do it.”

To reach Nicole Inglis, call 970-871-4204 or email ninglis@ExploreSteamboat.com