Forget fishing nets draped from the ceiling, or baskets of dusty sea stars. The Wood Company Hand Crafted Furnishings Showroom-Gallery on Boat Basin Road in Charleston is as spiffy a space as you’ll find anywhere along the Pacific coast.

Clean white walls rise from the polished wood floors. Windows set high on the gallery’s west side bring sunlight, while marine ambiance flows into the two-story room from the street level windows and door.

Here, David Castleberry’s energetic oil paintings — large canvases so color-saturated that they should be given an atomic weight — have found a home. Dozens of paintings by this popular Charleston artist are on display, showcasing his expressionistic style and dynamic application of pigment.

From the earlier, slightly more representational landscapes through his latest, quite lovely river rock studies (think columns of rock, dropped beneath crystal clear water and viewed from the sharp-eyed, soaring perspective of an osprey), Castleberry conveys his joyous take on life with unquenchable vitality.

Joining him on The Wood Company walls are master marine artists Dan Dunn, Dutch Mostert and Don McMichael. There are no prints, giclee or otherwise, in this gallery. The atmosphere is one of originality, and highly evolved technique.

Steve Grove is the mastermind behind The Wood Company, and a master at working with wood. He explains that the “hand crafted” part of his business is defined by his care and attention to detail. “You can go to a furniture store and buy the production stuff,” says Grove, “or, you can talk to me.

“Typically, we’ll start with a sketch. That doesn’t mean that it won’t change ... My job is to climb inside their brain. I’ll put a twist on it or they’ll put a twist; I’ll rough cut and clamp it together and then, they’ll come take a look. They’ll have something visual, something they can touch.

“If it’s not a challenge, it’s just work,” asserts Grove. “People constantly ask, but I don’t typically take on dining room sets. The table is fun. The first chair is fun. But five more chairs? That’s just work.”

At last weekend’s grand opening, Grove had nothing to show. The three, inlaid and oak-framed mirrors he had prepared were sold before the event.

“I was asked the price, and when I told her, she offered more. What could I do?” His offer to ship the mirrors after the opening was declined, and Grove took the sale. “I love it as I build it, and cry as it goes out the door.”

Grove brings his background in commercial drafting and design to his work, meshing the particulars of problem-solving a piece with the intangible skills of customer service.

“A wood craftsman has to think, how do I accommodate? Do I redo, or add? How do I reinvent the wheel?”

When he’s speaking of the new gallery space, Grove is positive and confident. When asked about his wood furnishings business, the energy ratchets up several notches. Recent projects have included the oak mirrors, a mahogany curio cabinet, and a 12-gun cherrywood gun storage cabinet.

Future plans for the gallery include the addition of one more artist — a sculptor who works in bronze — and the introduction, toward the end of July, of Bay Moss Studio into the second of The Wood Company’s two buildings.

A cheerful breeze way separates the two, and Grove’s estimate of 600 visitors to last weekend’s party found celebrants moving easily from one building to the next, pausing to admire the gallery’s flags as they snapped in the wind, or to catch a whiff of salty air.

The Wood Company Showroom-Gallery, 63330 Boat Basin Road, is open seven days a week from 11 a..m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call 888-5300.

Teri Albert reviews art and artists for the Ballyhoo! page of The World. Comments on or story ideas for this column are welcome, and can be e-mailed to malbert3@verizon.net