When watercolorist Phillip Pollock is surrounded by the greenery and heat that accompany a Florida fall and winter, his mind’s eye travels to a very different, distant landscape. Old hiking memories resurface from his boyhood as he remembers growing up in Iowa with his three brothers. Instead of palm trees, he imagines barren treescapes that lie in wait for a snow-covered blanket. 

While the scenes he paints from memory harken back to the Midwest’s rolling bluffs and woodlands, Pollock’s more recent works are a celebration of scenes he photographs at the St. Mark’s Wildlife Refuge. Particularly, he enjoys showing his appreciation for the tiny but mighty variety of warblers.

“A lot of my intent in painting is to bring attention to and highlight the refuge,” says Pollock. “I want people to know about the refuge, see these paintings and be inspired by them. I also want to bring these Florida birds into the thinking of people who love the refuge, and to let them know there are other birds out there besides the big eagles and egrets.” 

One of Pollock’s recent paintings, “Pine Warbler in Palmettos,” was chosen to be part of the 2021 Brush Strokes Tallahassee Watercolor Society Members Exhibition. This annual exhibition is curated by COCA for the Art in Public Places program on behalf of the City of Tallahassee.

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