Botanical Travels
By Wendy Hollender
I find the life cycle of plants expressed in flowers, seedpods, capsules, and fruits captivating subjects for my artwork. There is beauty and complexity in the most common plants. Nature is a perfectionist when it comes to the arrangement of color and form.
Often this beauty is overlooked. Many plants are tiny, have flowers high up on a tree, and hidden by leaves. By studying these forms closely, the way an insect might experience a flower or under magnification, I become aware of details not normally noticed, and I begin to draw what I discover.
White Water Lily
Colored Pencil and Water Color23 x 30 inches
Bottle Gentian
Colored Pencil and Water Color23 x 30 inches
African Tulip Tree
Colored Pencil and Water Color23 x 30 inches
Like an insect I am attracted to a flower. I see a spot of co lour in the distance. I need to get closer. I am drawn in by co lour; unusual form; and intoxicating scents. Sometimes I can find a comfortable place to sit and draw. Other times I may have to climb a tree, or jump in a pond to gather a blossom. I pick a blossom and take it apart. Next I examine its parts under a microscope and begin to take notes and make drawings of details and colors. Only then am I ready to begin a finished drawing or painting.
Sacred Lotus
Colored Pencil and Water Color23 x 30 inches
Yellow Water Lily
Colored Pencil and Water Color23 x 30 inches
Torch Ginger
Colored Pencil and Water Color23 x 30 inches
I love the outdoors and diversity of plants found in different environments. I am equally excited by the rain forest and the prairies of Iowa. For a city girl from Manhattan they are both fascinating. When I started drawing plants, I thought a flower’s life cycle began and ended in a bucket at the local flower shop. The more I examined and observed plants the more I learned that this fascinating life cycle is endless. Now I often work on location and have started to paint a suggestion of the plant’s habitat along with its stages of development.
It doesn't’t matter to me that past botanical illustrators and scientists have studied, documented and photographed these plants. For me it is as if I am an explorer and I have discovered nature’s beauty for the first time.
For inquires on purchasing these paintings, please e-mail wendy@whartdesign.com
Echinacea
Colored Pencil and Water Color23 x 30 inches
Prickly Pear
Colored Pencil and Water Color23 x 30 inches