"Large Inventory" — a name that refers to the size of the paintings rather than the quantity on display — is one of the current exhibitions at the Froelick Gallery. Fourteen works of art from 13 different artists make up the show, with each piece taking up almost an entire wall in the gallery.

“For some of these artists it takes years just to create one big painting,” Charles Froelick says as he shows us around the gallery. “I love big art… you stand in front of it and it just envelopes you.”

Froelick used to think that he was going to be a studio artist in college. He studied sculpture and art history, but it wasn’t until he became a volunteer at the University of North Texas galleries that he realized his true passion.

“I found out I got more enjoyment out of interpreting other artists’ work and giving those ideas or explanations to the people walking in,” Froelick says.

Froelick opened his own gallery in 1995 in downtown Portland. In 2007 he moved the self-titled gallery to the DeSoto building in the Pearl district. There it quickly became one of the regular stops on the First Thursday art walk.

“One year we closed for the Fourth of July [which fell on a Thursday] and people flipped out,” Froelick smiles. “There are so many artists in Portland… people here beg to see art!”

Now Froelick schedules the openings of his exhibitions around the first Thursday of every month. "Large Inventory" kicks off this week and will run through the end of February. There may not be an abundant number of paintings in this show, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in scale.

The video was filmed and edited by Tom Shrider.