EARTH • WIND • FIRE

Original Exhibit Dates: January 13 to February 10, 2009
Watson MacRae Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works that combine the 2-D paintings and drawings of Sherry Rohl and Hollis Jeffcoat from the East Coast and the 3-D ceramics of Sheena Cameron and Carol Clamer from the Southwest.

Sherry Rohl’s passion for and sensitivity to her subject and exceptional drafting ability enable her to express the power and strength of stallions on the run and the tenderness and vulnerability of colts at rest in the drawings and paintings of her resent work. More like portraits, Rohl’s horses look straight at us and meet us eye to eye. Most striking is her unexpected composition that gives these works an unusual feel and attitude, compelling us to realize these are not your usual horse pictures.

Hollis Jeffcoat uses jestural marks, erasures and pentamento in her charcoal drawings of the Traveler Series to capture the frenetic movement of birds on the wing, amazingly so. Her Traveler paintings on the other hand present bird-like forms gliding towards us and holding their place in space…and our imagination.

The Messenger Horses of Sheena Cameron hold secret treasures. Cameron creates a compartment within the ceramic bodies of her horses that holds objects like fossils, crystals, or hand-made jewelry. Sturdy creatures that stand on masonry nails her horses are raku, naked raku or painted. The names of the horses, as well as the story she writes about the symbolism of the materials she uses, comes to her as she works on each piece and is recorded in each horse’s little book. Cameron’s horses are both contemporary and mythic.

Carol Clamer who passed away last January was a large, strong, straightforward woman – her pots are like their creator. Clamer’s strength enabled her to throw large pots, which most potters would have had to hand-build, yet she had a relationship with the clay that created pots with a sensitivity in their massiveness. Many in this exhibit are wood-fired, which requires round-the-clock tending for several days. Her friend, Sheena Cameron often helped her with this process.

The Four Women in this exhibit have several things in common that may not be evident. They all have been working artists for over 35 years and that dedication to their craft has resulted in work of exceptional artistry. While they grew up and studied in different parts of the country: Clamer – Philadelphia; Cameron – Boston; Rohl – Cincinnati, and Jeffcoat – Ft. Myers the two ceramicists became friends and collaborators in Dixon, New Mexico, as did the two painters in Ft. Myers, Florida. All four artists base their work on Nature and create pieces, whether iconic or naturalistic, that contain a palpable energy of the work they love.