Stephanie Pollack recalls that the pivotal moment in her life as an artist came at age 12, while visiting her Aunt Fannie in Ohio. As the adults socialized, Pollack spent a good deal of the time drawing. Her aunt, observing the innate artistic ability of her niece, suggested to her parents that they enroll their daughter in art lessons.
“I always liked to draw as a child. My creative spirit is probably from my dad, who was a jazz pianist and gigged with Dave Brubeck. Dad was also a full-time account manager at the Detroit Ford Motor Company,” says Pollack.
She adds that her parents had been next-door neighbors as youngsters and, eventually, her father quite literally married the girl next door.
“I was born in Colorado, but raised in Michigan where my father worked,” says Pollack.
Her exploration with watercolors began when she enrolled in a class with one of his colleagues, Leonard Johnson, who taught at the School for the Arts in downtown Detroit. She studied only watercolors under Johnson, and recalls that it was eight months before she was permitted to show any paintings to her parents.
In retrospect, she believes it was that instilled discipline that enabled her to master the fluid medium.
The family eventually moved to Texas, where she attended Texas Women’s University and North State Texas University.
During her studies there, Pollack also experimented with numerous other visual arts media in addition to watercolors, including ceramics, oils and pastels.
Pollack explains that while she was taught everything about basic painting, form, composition, color values and textures, watercolors have always been her go-to creative passion.
“When I have instructed classes, I emphasize the importance to use the best possible brushes and quality paint, and the strongest gauge of paper, which is 300-pound cold press. It has a sturdy, slightly textured finish,” she says.
Pollack’s style has an affinity to famed 20th-century artist Georgia O’Keeffe, though she says she is most influenced by the Impressionists.
When looking at the details of her floral works, the viewer is captivated by the intricate beauty of each petal as it unfolds, almost as if the painting possesses a life force.
“I like to paint big and close-up, zooming into the leaves and petals and shapes. I sometimes paint petals individually. I think about growth,” she explains.
Although Pollack herself has an understated persona, her emotions are released in her paintings, which burst with color and vibrancy, vitality and movement.
Her appreciation for the natural environment is evident with her frequent paintings of Florida fauna and native birds, and she brings excitement to her abstracts with flashes of radiant reds and yellows. Other favored topics are intensely colorful nautical themes and “summer scapes.”
She says that one of her most requested paintings is that of a rooster; she has painted and sold more than 50 of the vibrant bird since the first one in May 2017.
Pollack says her more recent paintings represent the tipping point to her personal renaissance.
“Early on with my art, I tended to use a lot of neutral colors, ochre, beige, earth tones. But in my mid-40s I had a transformation and began to experiment with the entire color wheel,” says Pollack, whose exuberance spills over as she describes this metamorphosis.
She entered into the world of art shows in 1984, when her late husband, a former technical court reporter for Bowers Food Company, encouraged her to enter a show at a tropical race venue in Miami. She sold two paintings at what would be the first of many shows and sales.
“My husband was challenged with polio and walked with crutches. He maintained an inner strength and good judgment that guided me. He said I know you want to be creative, but you need to do 10 percent for creative fun and 90 percent as a businesswoman.”
That guidance placed Pollack on a trajectory to enter an increased number of shows year after year, which equated to making additional sales.
“It turned out to be the best decision of my life because it prepared me to support the family when my husband became ill and passed away. I now had a passion to pursue,” says Pollack, who moved to Vero Beach in 2017 and soon joined the Vero Beach Art Club.
“I may not be a good marketer, but I love to paint!”
It’s a good thing, as at one point she was doing up to 26 shows each year, but she has since whittled that down to between two and six annually. She explains that a lot of energy is required to exhibit in a show, particularly during the busiest times of the year when she would also find herself working 12-hour days to produce the paintings.
Today, a typical artist’s day for Pollack begins with the essential cup of coffee. After taking a 15-minute post-breakfast walk to enjoy the morning sun and cooler air, she returns to the studio to sketch and continues to work until lunchtime. Another walk and more painting ensue, until quitting time in the late afternoon.
“I usually work on three paintings at a time,” Pollack explains. “Once one is started, I give it time to dry while working on the next. Sometimes a hairdryer is used to speed the process.”
When not painting Pollack says she loves antiquing, describing her home as very eclectic, decorated with vintage furnishings. She credits a daily swim with keeping her limber, and tends to an herb garden to compliment her homemade cooking for friends and family.
Pollack frequently travels to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and Mackinac Island, and visits her two New York-based daughters, both successful professionals in marketing and graphic design.
Pollack exhibits in Florida at the Vero Beach Art Club’s Under the Oaks Fine Arts and Crafts Show, the Sebastian Fine Art and Music Festival, Art Fest Fort Myers, the Rotary Sanibel-Captiva Art Festival and the Downtown Stuart Art Festival.
Photos by Joshua Kodis