Story behind the art of Wendy Hollender
29th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and the Society of Illustrators
Gum Copal
Hymenaea verrucosa
For 20 years I have been spending several weeks in the winter at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on the Southshore of Kauai, Hawaii. I spend my days at the Educational Center, which has a beautiful, large, windowed classroom overlooking the Lawaii Valley. The valley is home to this beautiful botanical garden full of tropical plants and trees from all over the world. I often take walks down into the Valley to the garden. The driveway begins at the top of a cliff and then meanders its way two miles down to the Pacific Ocean. On the way from the classroom to the valley below sit several large trees, each one prolific in producing interesting seed pods that are scattered all over the driveway. For 19 years I stepped on the pods of the Hymenaea verrucosa tree, hundreds of them squashed by the cars that had driven over them. Occasionally I would pick up a fresh one and think about drawing it. They are unusual looking, about two inches long and covered in bumps. Finally, this past winter I brought several of them to my desk, and the pods and I had a conversation about creating this painting.
I started by examining pods in different stages, from green to dark indigo, and some that had cracked open, revealing the rich brown color of the seeds inside. Sometimes a crusty, sticky resin oozed out of the pods, which I learned is used to make a varnish. I cut a branch with leaves and seed pods attached and planned this composition. The leaves grow in pairs and upon close inspection under the tree, I found a seedling that had sprouted there from the thousands of seeds and squashed pods that rested there.
I have never seen this tree flower as it must flower in the summer. Fortunately, the NTBG’s herbarium had dried specimens of the flowers, and I used these to add in some flowers.
I like to show as many stages as possible in a painting and this tree gave me a fun visual story to tell. Can you tell that I truly enjoyed creating the bumpy texture of these pods?
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