Holly Pobis

Artist Statement

My name is Holly Pobis. I began my company, Marsh & Light, to share my photography and art.

I grew up in Columbia, South Carolina and raised my own family there. My father was a professional sports photographer and writer, so the art of photography was a constant in my childhood. Not surprisingly, I became interested in photography myself, which led to a love of other forms of art, as well as graphic and interior design. My husband and I later moved to Hilton Head Island, off the southern South Carolina coast.
I was inspired by the light on the marsh behind our house there … and thus the company was named. We opened a gallery and shop on the island to feature my work, and I loved speaking with both locals and visitors about the themes I love to depict -- natural landscapes, architecture, historic places, and, most of all, light. In addition, I began to include photos from our travels around the world to my collection, and these pieces became my Travelogue series.

I felt a need to experiment a bit beyond traditional photography. I wanted to combine both my love of photography and painting in my art. This interest led to my PhotoColour collection. For these special pieces, I print a black and white photo on watercolor paper and then selectively paint the image with watercolors. This need to experiment also led to my love of cyanotypes, an entirely different kind of photography. This process creates a “negative” of natural botanicals against chemically-saturated medium. The unique Prussian blue color of cyanotypes initially captured my love of the ocean — but now, in my life in the Southwest, the color is reminiscent of the deep blue sky.

We now live in Santa Fe and spend almost every weekend exploring the state and the Southwest area of the country. These new landscapes have been a welcome change of inspiration for my photography and art, The greens and blues of the coast that captivated me before have been replaced by adobe and turquoise. But the constant that bridges my coastal art with that of the Southwest is the light. Shadows and light, textures and colors, images and reflections. My new logo captures both my love of the sea and the South and my new fascination with the Southwest desert and mountain landscapes.