Town and Country is a collaboration between Roland Stoughton, who works in soft pastel, and ceramicist Doric Jemison-Ball. Stoughton’s rural landscapes explore the boundary between realism and abstraction. Jemison-Ball’s complexly textured ceramics will in this show explore urban forms, making their own 3-D urban landscape within the surrounding installation of Stoughton’s paintings. The work of the two artists connects through their sensitivity to color and texture, a shared dedication to instinctive visual enjoyment, and influences of mid-century abstract expressionism. An opening reception is set for Friday, June 7, 2019, 5 to 7 pm. Exhibit thru Sunday, June 30, 2019 in the Burnett Gallery. Free.

Roland Stoughton, a former Gualala Arts Center President, is a retired physicist and entrepreneur, devoting most of his time now to art and music. Stoughton has long admired the mid-century painters Rothko, Avery and Diebenkorn, and was fortunate to be able to learn pastel techniques from the landscape painter Wolf Kahn, a student of Hans Hoffman. The pastels in Town and Country are the product of several years of effort toward learning to work in this medium and to synthesize influences of these artists into representational landscapes.

Doric Jemison-Ball, long-time President of the North Coast Artists Guild, is a former healthcare executive and Internet service provider, now retired and enjoying life as a full-time artist. Jemison-Ball is known primarily for his highly conceptual work in ceramics, sculpture and painting. The work in this show, however, will mark a return to his origins in ceramics in the mid 1960’s. Focusing on the raw nature of clay, the work will explore form, texture and color in a style reminiscent of the abstract expressionist work of Peter Voulkos from the same period.