Polly Burnell, born and raised in Ohio, has been working as a professional
artist since 1981. She showed with a group of established artists in
Cincinnati whose work was primarily narrative. In 1986, she moved to
Provincetown and began drawing out in the dunes. Soon, she was painting with
vivid colors--an important beginning to her well-received small oil works of
intensely detailed, surreal landscapes. She has shown in numerous solo and
group exhibitions in Provincetown as well as in Hudson and New York, NY,
Mill Valley, CA, Philadelphia, PA and Santa Fe, NM.
Several years ago, after the death of a close friend, Burnell and ceramic
sculptor, Thom McCanna, collaborated on the design and decoration of her
friend's funerary urn. She then began to paint on and create ceramics including plaster panels, ceramic plates, teapots and tiles-silhouettes of adults, children, animals and insects in funny and disturbing narrative scenes. Burnell, raised a Catholic, has an affinity for dramatic and gothic details; for instance, recent work has included sculpted vessels painted with bats and other nocturnal animals, suffering martyrs, maritime disasters and volcanic eruptions. She has also been working on a series of small oil paintings on ceramic and wooden panels.
urnell, born and raised in Ohio, has been working as a professional