Polly Sharp
"With deep roots in the Oklahoma soil, it is our rolling hills and prairies, soaring
cloudscapes, flaming sunsets, and wandering creeks and rivers that inspire me to go outside and paint the landscape.
I was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma to an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and a mother of German and Irish descent. My great grandmother walked the Trail of Tears from Georgia. In every beautiful scene I try to capture on canvas I am aware of my Cherokee ancestors and the land they walked. Mine is a story of generations of trauma with my Cherokee heritage being ignored. My grandparents never spoke of the terrible journey, and all the wonderful Cherokee stories and traditions were lost. Today I am thirsty for knowledge of my history and the ways of my people. Our story echoes in the smoky blue distant hills and in the evening campfire. I hear our story in the bird songs, the lapping waters, the gentle breeze, the smell of the wildflower, the call of the wolves. All these things figure into the character of each of my paintings.
In my paintings of the red dirt land in which I live, I sing the memory of my Cherokee ancestors. They loved the land, the trees and waters, the creatures and the earth and skies. The land cared for them, and they cared for the land. I sing to the guardian trees, to the watchful moon, to the warming sun. I paint the land and care for my ancestor’s spirits that remain there."
Artist's Full Biograpy
Polly Sharp is a plein air oil landscape artist. She has lived her entire life in Oklahoma. Her paternal great grandmother walked the Trail of Tears with the Cherokee, and her mother's parents pioneered the prairie, coming from Ireland and settling near Miami, Oklahoma. Polly paints the Oklahoma landscape plein air in oils on canvas. Going outside to capture our rolling hills, rambling creeks, magnificent sunrises, big sky cloudscapes, and gentle prairie grasses is her joy. Keeping her gear always ready and loaded, she often rises early to catch the early morning light. On the way to a scouted location, often something will catch her eye and she stops to paint there instead. Polly has been painting plein air about 10 years. She is a self-taught artist, taking private lessons from well-known artists she admires, and online studies. She has studied and taken workshops from Cletus Smith, Rick McClure, Phil Starke, Kelli Folsom, Scott Christensen, and Skip Whitcomb.
Polly's works have won awards and been featured in many locations, including Edmond Art Association, Oklahoma Art Guild, and the Chisholm Trail Art Association. Her works have been featured by Brown Design Group in Grove; American Royal Art Show, Kansas City; Rusty Gables Spring Stampede, Oklahoma City, Dean Lively Gallery, Edmond; the Artesian Gallery in Sulphur, OK; the Oklahoma Artists Invitational; the Guthrie Walk of Art; and Edmond's OK VIBES. She has been juried in and shown in the Red Earth Festival at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Center.
Current works are shown at Rusty Gables Gallery, Oklahoma City; the Red Earth Gallery in downtown Oklahoma City; Exhibit C Gallery in Bricktown, Oklahoma City; and in her home studio in Edmond, Oklahoma.
“I also will be donating 10% to the stroke recovery art therapy program at Jim Thorpe Integris Rehabilitation Center. During COVID I suffered a massive stroke. I was unable to walk or talk correctly and certainly not paint. They let me bring my easel up and paint in my room. And my physical therapy included carrying a 25-pound backpack with all my gear around the 3rd floor of Integris. I am forever grateful to God and that program. I would like my buyers to know that part of the proceeds also goes to artists stroke recovery.”