Carol Ashton-Hergenhan, Master Gardener and Award-Winning Botanical Artist and member of Newtown Friends Meeting will make a presentation, “A Letter to Odie,” via Zoom for the adult class of Newtown Meeting at 9:45 a.m. on Sunday, October 10, 2021.
Carol’s topic, “A Letter to Odie,” is her response to a member of Quaker Meeting who asked Carol a few years ago if her art was spiritual to her. Ashton-Hergenhan will read her response to that question and discuss what she does, why, what her Quaker beliefs have to do with it, as well as show many photos of her paintings.
Carol said plants have always been central to her art. She has been the exhibit producer (and an award winner) for the Botanical Art exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower Show many times. She has exhibited in national and international botanical and fine art where she has also won multiple awards.
Ashton-Hergenhan’s upcoming November 2021 exhibit with two other botanical artists will mark the 101st exhibition of her work. She is represented in both private and institutional collections and is included in the recently published Just Draw Botanicals, by Helen Birch and American Botanical Paintings, Native Plants of the Mid Atlantic. She is a Fellow of the American Artists Professional League, a Signature Member of the Philadelphia Watercolor Society and an inducted member in the Philadelphia Sketch Club.
Carol Ashton-Hergenhan received her bachelor’s degree from the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts), a master’s degree in media from the Temple University Tyler School of Art, a post graduate certificate in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, engaged in private study of Chinese watercolor techniques with Phoebe Shih (Shih Hwei-Yueh), and studied botanical watercolors at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.
Carol began showing her drawings and paintings soon after graduation but took a hiatus from exhibiting while she managed the in-house creative and media departments of several large corporations. She returned to painting upon retirement in 2010.