SOUTH Carolina artist Sandra Roper was an art major at the University of South Carolina before her path led her to a career in advertising. But 17 years ago, the Greenville native left the corporate world to stay at home with her two sons. “I wanted to go to all of their ball games,” she says. “And then I started painting again and things just evolved from there—and I never missed any ball games.”

Painting in watercolors, Roper finds inspiration in the creativity and brilliance of Charleston’s eclectic styles of architecture and from the passion, perseverance and dedication people have for their work and traditions.

These days, Roper is working on a series of ordinary people doing extraordinary things—oyster shuckers, shrimpers, farmers, hog butchers—as a way of preserving the stories of waning art forms.

You can find Roper’s paintings at the Lowcountry Artists Gallery at 148 East Bay St. or on her website.