Meet the Artist

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

I grew up in 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 as a hobby myself, which led to a love of other forms of art, as well as graphic and interior design.

After our three kids had gone out on their own, my husband and I moved to Hilton Head Island, off the coast. Here, I began to transform my artistic hobbies into an art career after more than twenty years as a teacher. I was inspired by the light on the marsh behind our house there … and thus the company was named. “Marsh is a space of light,” wrote Delia Owens in Where the Crawdads Sing, and this became my central theme.

I felt a need to experiment a bit beyond simple 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. Inspired by vintage photographs I’d seen with a single item in color, I experimented with my photos, determining which parts to paint. Depending on the photo, some PhotoColours highlight a few objects, others are almost entirely painted.

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 watercolor paper. The unique Prussian blue color of cyanotypes initially captured my love of the ocean — but now, in the Southwest, the color is reminiscent of the deep blue sky.

Light, texture, and color became the most important aspects to all of my art. I ultimately opened my own art gallery and shop on the island and enjoyed selling my pieces to visitors and residents alike. I had always had a love of vintage things, so many of my pieces, as well as my shop, had an antique aesthetic.

Favorite themes for my photos included unique perspectives in natural landscapes, shadow and light play, and historic structures. In addition, I began to include photos from our travels around the world to my collection, and these became my Travelogue series.After a few years, we decided to make a change and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where we are now living very happily. The subjects of my art have obviously changed from the coast to the desert, but light is still the key element in all my photos. I’ve also embraced Southwest designs and elements in my line of bovine skull art, cyanotypes, and stationery.

My new logo captures both my love of the sea and the South and my new fascination with the Southwest desert and mountain landscapes.

I hope you discover something you love among my pieces!

Art Inspired by Light

Santa Fe, New Mexico