Tucked in on South Lyndon Street — a tiny road bookended by Market and Washington, just a block east of Church Street — is an unobtrusive two-story yellow brick building. Clever warning signs designed by Charlotte Ström playfully declare that in this building, artists are at work.

You walk through the side door into the reception area, take a right, and continue down the hall past studios housing artists of all kinds, until you reach Studio J. This cavernous space with wonderful windows and high ceilings is home to Ström Art LLC, owned by Charlotte and Erik Ström. Most days (and some evenings, depending on how the Muses choose to work their magic) you’ll find one or both of them hard at work doing what these dedicated artists consider their life’s calling: painting.

Welcome to Lyndon St. Artworks, a five-year-old artists’ studio and workshop that is the brainchild of sculptors Erik Beerbower and Ernie and Lois Rich. “This whole place is a work of art,” Erik Ström says. The Ströms joined the artists on Lyndon Street about three and a half years ago, when they were outgrowing their space. They were drawn by “the place here in general,” Charlotte says. “You can see the potential of the individuals — that people here are dedicated to what they’re doing.”

And the place, the artists say, really has had an effect on their work. “What used to be our biggest paintings in our studios at home are miniature here. We started painting bigger and better,” Charlotte says. Erik agrees: “We had a lot more room to spread our wings. I’ve noticed a huge jump in what we do.” “The interesting thing is that it works cross-medium. The potters next door are just as inspiring as the other painters and sculptors. I’d like to say that I see a relationship between everybody’s stuff, in an inspirational way,” Charlotte adds.

Inspiration is a great word to use when describing this pair. Both Erik, a native of Queens, New York, and Charlotte, who grew up in Winston-Salem, studied art at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and they found in their early friendship a kindred spirit in terms of their passion for art and seriousness in their pursuit of art as a career. “My plan was always to be a painter,” says Erik, who worked a number of odd jobs — including managing a restaurant, running a film lab, and teaching karate — in the years after graduation while he continued to hone his skills on his own.

Charlotte, perhaps a bit more practical, inhaled art classes at Winston-Salem’s Sawtooth Center and set her sights on becoming a commercial artist “with a fine-art flair.” After completing her drawing degree at UNC-G, she got further training at Guilford Technical Community College, where she studied computer graphics. Charlotte landed a job at the Kirschner Agency in Greensboro, working as a graphic artist. The experience was valuable, as she is able to use the skills she learned for the jobs that Ström Art takes on.

Together, Erik and Charlotte are artistic entrepreneurs, specializing in fine art, but also offering digital graphics and illustration (which they collaborate on) — and, most importantly, they’re making it work. “Some months are better than others,” Erik says, “but we’ve made slow and steady progress.”

They’ve also learned a lot along the way. “We’d get to the point where we’d realize, ‘Wow, I really don’t know what I’m doing. I’d better find out right now.’ ” This ad-hoc education has included learning how to compile a portfolio and how to contact an agent. Learning the business side of art has been quite a journey, one that they both had to use all their boldness and creativity to tread.

But, of course, the journey begins with the art itself, and both Erik and Charlotte are eager to share their love of painting, with each other as well as with others. Though both are painters, each has a unique style pursued in a truly individual fashion. Charlotte considers herself more of a “Zen painter,” allowing herself to find inspiration in anything — patterns on the floor, the line that she draws on the canvas that leads to the next line and the next. She admires the works of Michelangelo, Georgia O’Keefe, and Picasso, enjoying their craftsmanship, attention to forms, and fearlessness.

Erik is more of a planner and finds inspiration in history, mythology, science, and comic-book illustration. He finds himself more in “construction” mode, putting things on the canvas and then refining them to get the effect he wants.

And do they compete? Not at all. Erik says, “She balances me out.” Charlotte insists that she reacts to his structure and gets ideas. “We tend to share one brain,” Erik jokes.

They are able, through long friendship and mutual respect, to critique each other’s work honestly and without hurt feelings. “If anything, we’ve enriched each others’ abilities,” Erik adds. “We’re supportive of one another, building strengths and getting rid of weaknesses.”

Artists at work? You better believe it, and the two of them couldn’t be happier.