STORY BEHIND THE ART OF KATHY FOLINO

17th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists at The Horticultural Society of New York

Dodder and Hawkweed

Cuscuta gronovii and Hieracium paniculatum

I had seen the parasitic plant dodder (Cuscuta gronovii) many times during its growing season and not been charmed in the slightest by its rather noxious orange color and the fleshy appearance of its stems. However one year in trying to prove to a friend that yes, you can find colorful subjects to paint in the winter, I ran across the wintertime form of the plant. To me it looked like some kind of steam punk lace with its tiny fruit capsules and infinitesimal dried flowers all tied together with fragile strands of what were once its stems. Finding that it is a parasitic plant which, once it has attached to its host, releases its contact to the earth and lives strictly from its host's body added an eerie little frisson of fascination to my appreciation of the plant.

The specimen I found was draped on a common hawkweed whose leaves when they dried reminded me of pennants flying from a medieval castle, so the counterpoint of the long and flowing leaves of the hawkweed with the small round clusters and twining stems of the dodder seemed beautiful to me.

I hope that in looking at my painting the drama and mystery I saw when I was painting the subject comes through. I hope that it looks as romantic to the viewer as it did to me, even though the subjects are really very common native plants in the northeast and central US.

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Read more about this artist's work: Weird, Wild & Wonderful