Curlee Holton was looking for studio space to rent while on sabbatical from his teaching job.

The professor from Lafayette College in Easton, where he had been since 1991, wanted to open up a place that would offer area artists a chance to showcase their works.

When he came across a vacant, split-level Manayunk storefront, he knew he found something special.

"It's just about creating a space where people come in," Holton said during a recent interview at Raven Studio & Gallery, 4412 Main Street. "The idea is to celebrate the art and share it."

From the moment the studio opened last summer, Holton, and his wife, Glee, with whom he runs the studio and adjacent gallery, envisioned big plans for Raven, something highlighted tonight with the opening of a month-long exhibition titled "Abstract Interior Landscapes."

The exhibition will be the first one-man show for artist Charles Burrus, an Alabama native, and current Lower Merion resident, who left a 10-year career as a pediatric intensive care unit nurse to pursue his true passion full-time.

"I saw some of his work and said, let's do something," Holton recalled.

The two were introduced by a mutual friend who works as an art conservator. When Holton laid eyes on Burrus' work, he knew he had to have it at his studio, a place that was out of commission for a quarter century.

"It was a derelict building for 25 years," Holton said.

Now, the place is brimming with hope. Paintings from regional artists line the walls of the studio, and the adjacent gallery is being prepped for Burrus' creations, many of which are layered paintings incorporating acrylic, metal and paper on linen or canvas.

"It's kind of like sculpting on canvas," Burrus said, describing his medium of choice. "I like them layered with depth."

Burrus, who became seriously interested in art during high school, comes from a creative background. His mother, aunt, and grandmother are all artists, and he believes he was bitten by the art bug simply by hanging around them.

"It just kind of runs in the family," he said. "I was always encouraged to be creative."

Burrus describes his work as "very moody," the abstract pieces he works on inspired by various facets of life. Burrus, who said he'll always be a small-town boy at heart, joked that life in Philadelphia may have even inspired the darkness in his pieces.

In all seriousness, however, Burrus has nothing but words of praise for his adopted city.

"I think Philly is such an amazing city," he said. "It's affordable to live in, it's got great art, great food. I think Philly's a great city for so many things."

This coming from a man, who at 39, has lived in various parts of the country, both north and south.

The community in which Burrus grew up, Fairhope, Ala., also fostered a sense of creativity. He described the town, which sits on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, as similar to that of a New Hope or Lambertville in this region.

In his younger years, Burrus experimented with various media, including sculpting with clay to painting on wood and canvas.