oll <strong>art</strong> & image 34 | rollmagazine.com <strong>the</strong> secret life of plants: b o ta n i c a l a r t i s t Wendy Hollender by Ross Rice
35 | rollmagazine.com ome things can be easily taken <strong>for</strong> granted. For instance, <strong>the</strong> camera is a fairly recent development—no pun intended. Yet <strong>the</strong>re are libraries full of books on zoology and botany, with detailed images of flora and fauna that have been pored over by students <strong>for</strong> centuries. Somebody had to draw or paint those images, which— though created solely <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> purpose of reference and in<strong>for</strong>mation— often have an aes<strong>the</strong>tic beauty and resonance that transcend <strong>the</strong> humble subject. Yet, in spite of <strong>the</strong> ever-improving technology of <strong>the</strong> camera, <strong>the</strong> field of botanical <strong>art</strong> is still viable and vibrant, as it becomes clear that <strong>the</strong> <strong>art</strong>ist brings so much more to <strong>the</strong> image than a camera ever could. Hudson Valley-based botanical <strong>art</strong>ist/ teacher Wendy Hollender is at <strong>the</strong> top of <strong>the</strong> field, with works in numerous publications and galleries, including a touring Smithsonian exhibit of endangered plant species. And with her new teaching studio/organic farm just outside of Accord, she’s teaching o<strong>the</strong>rs to see inside <strong>the</strong> secret lives of plants, and present <strong>the</strong>m to <strong>the</strong> world. It’s a rare person who in <strong>the</strong>ir youth decides: hey, I want to grow up to be a botanical <strong>art</strong>ist. As a child growing up on Long Island, Wendy certainly wasn’t one of <strong>the</strong>m, this whole lifepath blossomed out of….boredom. “My career actually began as a teenager. In high school I doodled on my notebook covers—I just liked to cover any available surface with design and pattern. And I actually used those notebooks to apply to RISD (Rhode Island School of Design)….and got in! I had no training, I couldn’t do anything realistic. But I was really good with splashy color and patterns, and I had no problem covering <strong>the</strong> paper with stuff.” Her fellow freshman students kept asking her if she was majoring in textile design, which she’d never even heard of, but after about <strong>the</strong> 20th time it got mentioned she decided to look into it. Turns out it was <strong>the</strong> right direction <strong>for</strong> her, her repetitive cover-<strong>the</strong>-page doodling style was, er, tailor-made <strong>for</strong> textile design, so she went <strong>for</strong> it. She graduated, moved to Manhattan, and went pro, soon racking up a solid client base: Laura Ashley, Ralph Lauren, Wedgewood China, among o<strong>the</strong>rs. When she st<strong>art</strong>ed out, splashy and contemporary were in vogue. But as <strong>the</strong> trend went towards traditional and floral patterns, Wendy found herself referring to older documents and drawings <strong>for</strong> inspiration. Then she decided to take it fur<strong>the</strong>r. “I began looking <strong>for</strong> a place to study botanical illustration. I had gotten more and more fascinated with that old-time skill as it related to my textile design, because I used <strong>the</strong>se old documents <strong>for</strong> reference. And I loved <strong>the</strong> way <strong>the</strong>y looked, how realistic <strong>the</strong>y were, and three-dimensional. I could copy old documents or I could work from photographs to do a kind of realistic floral textile design, but I couldn’t (yet) work from real flowers and plants.” Fortunately, she found <strong>the</strong> perfect place to study very close by: The New York Botanical Garden, in <strong>the</strong> Bronx, had one of <strong>the</strong> largest programs <strong>for</strong> botanical illustration in <strong>the</strong> world. Learning <strong>the</strong> necessary techniques <strong>the</strong>re—one-light source, perspective, accurate realistic mixing of colors, plant structure and botany—brought an realistic enhancement to her decorative textile work, as she began getting her images directly from real plants instead of drawings and photographs. After a few years of study she made her public debut, producing a show of twelve large botanically-<strong>the</strong>med oil paintings. The show caught <strong>the</strong> eye of a Cali<strong>for</strong>nia calendar company, who purchased <strong>the</strong> twelve, and Wendy had her first official botanical drawing job. c o n t i n u e d o n p g 36...
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