Coral Bernadine Pollard

Coral Bernadine Pollard was born in Bridgetown, Barbados.[1] She attended the Christ Church Girls' Foundation School and began painting there.[1] Her teacher, Evelyn Heath, encouraged her to pursue art, however, her father was not supportive of the idea.[1] When Pollard was 17, she began working at Mount Gay Distilleries.[1] She married Cornelius Pollard when she was 19 and the couple went on to have three children, though they would eventually divorce.[1] Pollard took classes for fashion illustration at the Traphagen School of Fashion and Pollard would go on to create art professionally by age 26.[1]

Her work included graphic art, murals, and painting, though most of her early work was commercial in nature.[1][2] She created the "emancipation mural" on display in the West Wing of the Parliament building and was the designer of the "national dress" of Barbados.[3] Pollard also worked as an art tutor at Her Majesty's Prison Dodds.[4]

Pollard was featured in a 2011 exhibition at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society exhibition celebrating women artists where she displayed her painting, Roots.[5][6][7] Pollard's exhibition, "Power and Glory" for Barbados Day in 2015 was the precursor for the 2016 50th anniversary of independence exhibition titled "The Pride of Barbados."[3][8] In 2016, she presented the Prime Minister, Freundel Stuart, with a portrait featuring him during the 50th anniversary celebration.[9] She was honored by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) in 2017 for her "contribution and development of art" in Bajan culture.[10]