Scenes from right out of the movies (or TV)

Actress Brooke Adams is used to being on one side of the camera. But during a recent visit to the set of the TV series “Monk,” which stars her husband Tony Shalhoub, Adams found herself behind the lens instead. The crew was on location at an old Italian villa in the California wine country and the light was just right, Adams recalls, so she snapped a photograph.

“It looked like we could have been in the Renaissance, except that there were all these guys and equipment everywhere,” says Adams, who is known for her work in “Days of Heaven,” “Gas Food Lodging” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” “So, I decided to give them all a Renaissance sensibility.”

Adams used the snapshot as a study for a painting that not only captures the idyllic Italianate countryside but the gear-laden grips and gaffers as well. The resulting image, “Archway,” is part of “Double Feature,” an exhibit of film-themed work by Adams and painter Dorothy Braudy opening Saturday at Hamilton Galleries in Santa Monica.

Aside from exposing the behind-the-scenes element of the film industry, Adams took the opportunity to “observe the observers,” as she puts it.

“As an actress, I always felt like the people you met on set were interchangeable with the people you met on other sets -- the grips, the gaffers, the actors, the directors -- everybody steps into their role,” Adams says.

Of course, a double feature needs two acts, and the exhibit, which includes Braudy’s noir-inspired paintings, is no exception. Working from stills of mostly little-known noir films, Braudy created a smoke-filled world populated by blond bombshells and dapper detectives. “Teeter’s,” for example, depicts a fedora-clad man outside a ‘40s-era bar complete with requisite neon signage. The scene is from the 1947 classic “Out of the Past,” but that, Braudy says, is beside the point.

“I love the idea that the viewer must make up his or her own narrative,” she says. “I hope there’s a little mystery there.”

-- Lea.Lion@latimes.com

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‘DOUBLE FEATURE’

WHERE: Hamilton Galleries, 1431 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica

WHEN: 6-9 p.m. Sat.; ends Dec. 16

PRICE: Free

INFO: (310) 451-9983, www.hamiltongalleries.com