Drawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated. -- John Berger
Jann Pollard’s subject matter revisits architectural and landscape views culled from her extensive travels, especially throughout Europe -- but her deeper subject is the atmospheric sensation of the places, and even more so, the memories that accrue both to those enchanting historical places, and to the mind and soul of the artist. Pollard’s deepest wish is to impart these qualities to her audience.
Her scenes are often depopulated, yet one feels the residual presence of centuries of humanity; fields and stones, bricks and rivers, bridges and dwellings, all of it saturated with stories, millions of them, and then her own, and through her, ours. Pollard’s works in oil, acrylic, and watercolor demonstrate mastery of technique and the clear ability for faithful renderings, but what she does is the opposite of sight-seeing. Instead, Pollard offers the rich textures of daily life, elevating through the energy of her attentions, the unremarked-upon moments that make a place real.
Increasingly, Pollard is pushing the boundaries of her mediums, utilizing traditional paints to pursue a more modern, post-photographic aesthetic. Pollard’s newest work uses proximity, economies of scale, cropping, forced perspective, and other choices that highlight the abstract character of the intersecting surfaces and light sources she captures. For her, painting is a way of paying closer attention to the world, and the memories thus cemented are more durable than any photograph. As the late John Berger said, “The camera relieves us of the burden of memory.” Jann Pollard is happy to take up that burden again.
“My love of art and travel, combined with a study of old world architecture, is a never-ending inspiration for me. I see light, color, shapes and a moment in time that evoke a feeling that I want to capture in my paintings and share with my viewer.”
Jann is a Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society, Southern Watercolor Society and California Watercolor Society. She has a B.F.A. degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as having studied under numerous, well known artists. Her work was accepted into the American Impressionist Society’s juried exhibition and Southern Watercolor Society, winning the Winsor Newton Merchandise Award in 2016. In 2017, she won First Prize in watercolor in the National Heritage Contest for the Daughters of the American Revolution, awarded at their Continental Congress in Washington, DC.
Pollard is co-author with Jerry Little of the book, Creative Computer Tools for Artists, Watson Guptill Publications and her work was featured in an article in International Artist magazine, At the time, using the computer as a new tool to design compositions was new to the artist; the invention of the camera for the Impressionist was a similar era. Today, most artists are using the computer in some mode or other to aid their creative process. Her work was featured in Watercolor magazine in 2012. She was the cover artist for the lauded Karen Brown travel books series for more than 15 years, painting cover images yearly for the 17 books.
Pollard completed several paintings for Princess Cruises and Duke University Cancer Center purchased 5 of her paintings for their new cancer building. Jann was a popular plein-air teacher in workshops in Europe, Mexico and the United States and has recently retired from teaching to allow more time for painting. Her extensive, more than 1600 works are in private and corporate collections, internationally. Jann and her husband, Gene, reside in Charlotte, North Carolina.