Polly hodges - Biography
A creative person at heart Polly has always had a natural ability for putting emotion on canvas. From a natural flair which began in school Polly is entirely self taught and thoroughly enjoys the escapism art can create.
Born in Bedfordshire in 1983 Polly has always been fortunate to share her life with horses. Her career as a dressage rider took off in 1999, she went on to represent her country on British Teams and up to International Grand Prix level. Since equines are a never ending source of inspiration for her work, Polly is frequently found riding and training her horses, which aids her to clear her mind and re-energise her creative passions. Someone once posed the question: "What’s the greater of your passions, Horses or Painting?" Her response was simple: "In my world they go together, cannot be separate, one inspires the other!"
She has a love and respect of the beauty, grace, and power of the horse and feels her own and their spirituality can be seen through her work. Consequently much of Polly's work is emotive and captures movement through texture and acrylic paints on large canvas, in order to achieve maximum impact and portray the power of the subject.
Alongside the animals Polly has begun painting a series of nudes which maybe a relatively new obsession of hers but is a gradual progression in her journey of expressing her emotions and translating them to the canvas.
As we all proceed through the journey of life, Polly and her art are constantly evolving. She feels natural beauty is often forgotten and passes us by with the fast pace of modern life. She hopes her paintings could provoke an emotional response within others and allow themselves to stop, contemplate and maybe escape reality for a moment. There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life - happiness, freedom, and peace of mind - are always attained by giving them to someone else. In Polly's painting she wishes just a small amount of one of those things can be brought to you as a gift.