Wendy Hollender is a master of botanical illustration. You might not know her by name, but if you’ve been around the Hudson Valley for any amount of time, you’ve likely seen her work. Her 2009 collaboration with Dina Falconi on Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook was a national success and a blueprint for independent publishing. To this day, you will still find it faithfully stocked on the shelves of local booksellers and specialty shops, with colorful prints hanging everywhere from cafes to food co-ops.
Wendy’s latest masterpiece, The Album of Plant Families: An Illustrated Exploration of Nature’s Beauty and Bounty, took years to plan and produce. The idea arose in 2021 after Hollender read Melissa Clark’s article “Know Your Onions (and Shallots and Leeks and Ramps)” in the New York Times. “I read that article,and it was ramp season, and I found the really nice ones nearby here,” she says of her Accord home. “I like to forage, obviously, and I thought, ‘wow, what would it be like if I took all these plants that are related and let them meet each other on one page and interact with each other?’”
One painting became four. Four became twelve. After that, Wendy set her sights on 24—enough for a book.“By that time, I had such a compelling project that the plants really were in charge, and they’re like, ‘you are doing this,’” Hollender says. “So, that’s what I did, and eventually, I did nothing else.”
The final product is a true coffee-table tome. Plant Families’ large 22-by-17-inch spreads allow you to dive into the paintings, your head dwarfed by the oversized pages as you’re drawn into the details and wonders of each family. The pages positively burst with color and context. Amaryllis and daffodil—the long-lost siblings of red onion and garlic. Carrots cuddling with coriander on a page. Hibiscus, okra, and Rose of Sharon—all in the Mallow family—along with the chocolate tree. Who knew? Hollender’s skill in illustration is matched by her knowledge of the plant world, making the book both a visual and educational delight.
Botanical Precision
Hollender is a perfectionist in her approach. A true naturalist, she relies on what she sees and directly experiences with her subjects: petals and stalks, seed pods, and the fruiting bodies of flora both familiar and exotic. She describes relationships between taste and color. She emphasizes the scale of seeds, some of which are so small that they require a microscope to see and paint. “I only work from real plants,” she proudly declares, as she chuckles through the story of a “required” research trip to Hawaii. At times, she simply grows the plant she intends to paint. Otherwise, she arranges for specimens to be mailed to her at specific moments in their life cycle.
Her command of materials—colored pencil and watercolor—create a style that is immediately realistic yet, upon inspection, subtly impressionistic. The artist’s hand is gloriously present in all of her images.
At Home in Accord
Hollender’s property in Accord is as magical as her work. Apart from her home, an impeccably styled Catskills farmhouse, it includes her studio and showroom, a water garden, a regenerative farm, and several educational spaces, where she and a small team of teachers host a range of creative workshops. The entrance to this haven is an intricately woven trestle of vines and bent trees that forms a towering 12-foot-tall Gothic arch. A fitting representation of Hollender’s work: the wild natural world balanced by formalized observation.
Lately, the sprawling grounds are populated by darting children. Hollender has lent her space to a nearby private school undergoing renovation. The scene is at once painterly—a narrative masterpiece full of childhood wonder, grand architecture, and the blossoming landscape of an intimate Catskill farm.
The text accompanying The Album of Plant Families, written by Hollender and an eclectic array of botanists, farmers, family, and friends, is equally as wondrous as the scenes she manifests around her. She approaches her own writing much like she approaches art-making. “I just sat down and let my mind go,” she recounts. “I’d look at the painting, and I’d see what I learned from it or what memories from my childhood it brought up. It all just flowed.” Accompanying Hollender’s reflections are essays from 15 contributors, each offering insightful prose and stories to complement the illustrated journey.
As we conclude our tour on the rear porch overlooking her enormous rural sculpture of a yard, Hollender reveals her underlying desire for the book’s success. “I want to bring this project out into the world because I care,” she says. “I want people to enjoy it and learn from it, and maybe get a little more interested in plants and in the environment that we need to grow them in.” It would be a fitting outcome for the works of a masterful artist. If the function of art is to make us reconsider the world and our place within it, Hollender’s work shines far beyond its natural beauty.
All 24 original paintings from the book will be on display at the Prince Street Gallery in Kingston from July 18 – August 9, with an opening reception on July 18, 2026 5-8p.m., and at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, MA, in February 2027. The Plant Families book and botanical prints are available online, as well as a full list of Hollender’s upcoming events.
