Harvesting Beauty at Hollengold

Inspired by the last issue of RISD XYZ – on Natural Instincts – botanical illustrator and educator Wendy Hollender 76 TX shared some pages from her own sketchbooks – a cornucopia of fresh finds plucked from the gardens at her own sweet Hollengold Farm in Accord, NY.

Hollender also notes that when she was majoring in Textiles at RISD, the Nature Lab as “by far” her favorite place to draw and work. “It is still an inspiration,” she adds, noting that she now has her own “nature lab full of specimens!”

Hollender lived and worked in Manhattan for three decades before returning to the land five years ago. “The property has been developed into a small permaculture organic vegetable farm,” she explains, where she holds workshops on both botanical drawing and permaculture and growing. “Students study and draw living plants and get to eat fresh wild and cultivated food prepared on the farm,” she says. 

Hollender (above left) illustrated the award-winning Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook by Dina Falconi and has written and illustrated two instructional books: Botanical Drawing: A Beginner’s Guide and Botanical Drawing in Color: A Basic Guide To Mastering Realistic Form And Naturalistic Color.

The artist’s exquisite botanicals have appeared in Real Simple, The New York Times and O, among others, and have been exhibited at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Gardens and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.