Phoenix artist, Julie Gilbert Pollard, paints in oil and watercolor in a fluid, painterly manner. Her painting style, while representational, is colored with her own personal concept of reality… “The eye may see as a camera ‘sees’, but the mind’s eye sees an altered, imagined image, what it wants and hopes to see. It’s that illusive image I try to express in my paintings. This amazing world of ours is often a mysterious, sometimes frightening, place, but is filled with scenes and subjects that excite my eye and imagination!”
Enjoying an extensive and multi-faceted career in art, Pollard is the author of three North Light Books: Discover Oil Painting, Watercolor Unleashed, and Brilliant Color (oil & acrylic), plus nine videos for ArtistsNetwork.com (three Watercolor Unleashed, four Oil Painting Unleashed and two Acrylic Unleashed). Additional publications include numerous articles and book inclusions including Watercolor Artist Magazine (2024, 2021, 2018, 2013), Plein Air Magazine (2023), Practique des Arts (2022), Splash 23 (2022), The Art of Watercolour Magazine (2019), Splash 18 (2017), Acrylic Works 3 (2016), The Artistic Touch 6 (2014), and Art Journey America Landscapes (2011).
She has given instruction in watercolor and oil since 1985 in numerous locations including Italy, Portugal, Canada, Sedona/Oak Creek Canyon in Arizona with Sedona Art Center School of Art, along with many additional US states. Current venues include online and in-person classes with, among others, Scottsdale Artists’ School, Shemer Art Center, Madeline Island School of Art (both Madeline Island on Lake Superior and Santa Fe), and Hudson River Valley Art Workshops in New York State which will be hosting her Plein Air to Studio workshop again in 2026.
Over her career, Pollard’s oils and watercolors have hung in numerous juried, and gallery exhibits. Most notable awards: Best Impressionistic Painting in Best of America, National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society, and Best Use of Light & Color in Best of America, National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society.
Pollard holds four signature memberships: National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society, Arizona Watercolor Association, San Diego Watercolor Society and Plein Air Painters of Arizona. Her work is included in many private and corporate collections and is represented in Arizona by Raku Gallery in Jerome and Sedona Arts Center Gallery in Sedona.
