Elke Pollard

About Elke Pollard

Elke Pollard was born in Bielefeld, Germany, during the Dam Busters bouncing bomb raid on the Ruhr dams "when all the windows of the hospital were shattered!"  Educated in Germany and Cyprus, she settled in England, married to the late artist Malcolm Pollard.

Elke obtained her National Diploma at the School of Art in Northampton, where she lives; Henry Bird remaining her mentor, other teachers including Tom Hughes, for etching and illustration; Frank Cryer, lettering and illumination; and Peter Cubitt, brush lettering and composition. The work of Rembrandt, Goya, John Singer Sargent and Tom Coates impressed her.

Pollard has been a boutique owner and designer; artist-in-residence, CCA Gallery, Cambridge; and taught for the Open College of the Arts and Northampton College. She has also been a member of Northamptonshire Town and County Arts Society.  Group shows included The Pollards, Central Gallery of Art, Northampton, and Fermoy Art Gallery, King's Lynn. She has held solo shows at New Hall, Cambridge (it has her self-portrait); Bedford School; and Derngate Foyer Gallery and Royal Theatre, Northampton.

Her murals include a restored listed building in The Racecourse Pavilion, Northampton, and with her husband she designed and executed decorated panelled ceiling for extension to the Mayor's Parlour, Northampton Town Hall.

Portrait of Sarah Newman [1997]
Pastels on paper, 43 x 29 cms
Donated by her nephew Richard Newman 2001

New Hall from the Garden
Watercolour
Donated by the artist 2013