‘Joan Pollak:

Original Pencil Drawings’

At Galerie Van-Os

Galerie Van-Os, located at 83 South Main Stret in Newtown, will offer a show and sale of the original artwork of Newtown artist Joan Pollak. The show will open with a reception on Saturday, November 1, from 4 to 7 pm, to which the public is invited. The collection, “Joan Pollak: Original Pencil Drawings,” will then remain on view until November 25.

Ms Pollak is a visual artist and writer. When she is not drawing, she works as a freelance copywriter and editor, and is the author of several published short stories.

Throughher work, Ms Pollak hopes to encourage the viewer to look being the expected, to see the familiar in a new way, to respond viscerally and intellectually. She combined cropped images, contrasting values, vivid hues, and the occasional visual pun for her effect.

To create the intense colors she desires, Ms Pollak uses Prismacolor colored pencils, whose waxy pigments can be blended and layered in an almost painterly technique. She also loves the rich, velvety black that can be achieved with hours of patience and an ebony pencil. A textured Stratchmore Bristol board capable of holding up to a rigorous building up and taking away of color is her paper of choice.

Pop art, photojournalism, and the paintings and fractured photographs of David Hockney are Ms Pollck’s major influences. She is drawn to such subjects as medieval stained glass, postage stamps, boxes and portraits, both animal and human. And she has always been fascinated by eyes.

Ms Pollak studied graphic design at the University of Florida, where she earned a BA in art as well as an MA in English. Her drawings have been displayed at the University of Florida, Grolier, Inc., the Slater Museum, and Teikyo Post University.

Ms Pollak lives in Newtown with her husband and son.

Galerie Van-Os, now in its 23rd years of serving Newtown and surrounding towns, is owned by the husband-wife team of John and Ann Osborn. It is a full service custom picture framing shop and limited edition print gallery, servicing residential, corporate and office clients.

For further information on the show and the gallery, Mrs Osborn can be reached by calling 426-6336.