STORY BEHIND THE ART OF KATHLEEN FOLINO

18th Annual International

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

Rose Library Page

Rosa multiflora, Rosa ‘Crimson Shower, R. ‘Rainbow’, R. ‘White Max Graf’

Last year I decided to do a series of drawings and paintings using roses as my subject. I worked diligently with my specimens but as we all know, our subjects’ viability is short lived at best. As the roses inevitably shriveled and contorted I found that I was more fascinated by the changes they were going through as they aged than with their juicy pulchritude in full blossom. So I gave in to the temptation and started painting them as they were in the moment. 

When I was working toward my CBA (Certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration from the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture) several years ago, we did a project involving the creation of "library pages". I had never heard of the term before and I cannot find a definition for it, but as I understood the concept at the time, a library page was a sort of visual catalogue of any subject with descriptive “footnotes” included. I had a great time doing them and I hadn't done one in a long time so thought it might be fun to do one again because I had so many beautiful bits and pieces to work with. Also, I have always loved different forms of calligraphy and enjoy occasionally including it in my work, so it was a good opportunity to use an informal bit of that as well.

The colors of semi desiccated plants are sometimes surprising and usually quite beautiful to me. The more I work with the forms of plants that are aging the more I think about the beauty of the structure of the plant. The essence of the plant somehow seems to be revealed.  

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