Polly Sharp
It’s all about the light! As a plein air oil painter it is always the light that I look for. It is my inspiration as I explore the awesome Oklahoma landscape.
Constantly aware of my Cherokee heritage, I paint the natural beauty of the land my ancestors walked and enjoyed. I go out often with my plein air easel to find one of Oklahoma’s exploding sunrises, wandering rivers or creeks, rolling hills, or flashing sunsets. Before starting a painting, I observe a sense of place: the sounds of birds, the lapping water, the breeze, the moisture or dryness in the atmosphere, the smell of wildflowers. All these things figure into the character of the painting. I try to imagine the legacy of my elders in the distant smoky hills and woodland dogwood and redbud.
I experience a profound connection to the Oklahoma landscape and try to capture its beauty in an impressionist style with more emotion than a photograph. It is with a sense of reverence that I paint the prairie landscape which became home to my ancestors after walking the Trail of Tears from Georgia.
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.”