July/August Art Show: Jeff & Ellen McCormack

Posted on June 26, 2025 Posted By: Achsah Carrier Categories: Art, News & Views

Ellen Holt McCormack
(1920-1999)

Ellen McCormack’s artistic career included oil and watercolor painting, drawing, textile art, mosaic, ceramics, graphic design, silversmithing, weaving, rug-hooking, macramé, batik, block print, silk screen, enameling, graphic design, and furniture decoration. She worked predominately from memory and imagination in treatments ranging from naturalistic, through semi-abstract, to non-objective. Ellen considered her greatest strength to be in the areas of design and composition. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Ellen lived in Cuba, Louisiana, Colorado, Illinois, Arizona, and North Carolina. She attended Wilson College and Ohio Wesleyan, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and she also won the coveted Robson Award for critical analysis in writing. After college she went on to teach creative writing, literature, and art for seven years. Her teaching style in art and literature was infused with depth, grace, gentle humor, and imagination. Ellen encouraged her students to use their inner resources to transform themselves into artists and writers. Three of her literature students won national awards for poetry, no doubt prompting the Colorado Department of Education to select her as Teacher of the Year. Ellen exhibited her work in numerous private and public art galleries, juried shows, art guilds, and invitational art shows. Ellen’s favorite watercolor subject was the West, specifically Arizona. A life-long learner, Ellen said she had to learn to paint all over again after moving to Arizona because the quality of light was so different, with the sand-toned landscapes, rich with the culture of the American Indian.

Jeffrey Holt McCormack
(1942 – )

Jeff McCormack learned some basic artistic principles from his mother, mainly design, composition, and color balance. He has since dabbled in botanical drawing, and enjoyed courses in design at Piedmont Virginia Community College. With a Ph.D. in natural products chemistry and pollination ecology, Jeff taught at Middlebury College, Sweet Briar College, and the University of Virginia before leaving academia to found several small businesses. Two of these included his former heirloom seed company, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (www.southernexposure.com), and a publishing business (www.bushmedicine.org). Jeff’s book (co-authored with Patty Wallens and Kathleen Maier), Bush Medicine of the Bahamas, won the 2012 book of the year award from the Society of Economic Botany, and was also a runner-up for the James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award.

A common thread in some of these endeavors is art complementing literature. His heirloom seed catalog featured botanical drawings and cherished stories about heirloom seeds. Jeff’s ethnobotanical work is a celebration of the intersection of art, literature, stories, memories, and science, and was also a runner-up for the James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award.