By Samantha Bambino
The Times
They say April showers bring May flowers, but the Bucks County Visitor Center is in full bloom with Bensalem resident Carol Ashton-Hergenhan’s art exhibit, A Bensalem Gardener’s Catalogue.
Visitors can explore 30 botanical art prints of various plants and flowers, all of which come from Ashton-Hergenhan’s home garden.
The artist and gardener has called Bucks County home for the past 20 years, while her time in the art world spans more than 60. As a child, she fell in love with painting, eventually studying art at Philadelphia College of Art, now University of the Arts, and Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. Over the years, Ashton-Hergenhan managed the in-house creative and media departments of several large corporations, including GE Financial Assurance, taking a hiatus from exhibiting during her professional career. Upon retiring in 2010, she returned to painting and now dedicates as much time as possible to her craft.
Throughout her career, plants have always been her central focus. She has tested countless techniques, everything from Chinese watercolor to impressionism, and 95 percent of her pieces are considered “botanical art,” which she describes as “a little less scientific than you’ll find in most textbooks.” Ashton-Hergenhan also has the prestige of being a certified Bucks County master gardener.
“I want to be the next Claude Monet,” she says.
Ashton-Hergenhan tends to two home gardens, one that spans half an acre at her home in Bensalem, the other at her cottage in the Poconos, which allows her to expand her variety of plants. If it’s unable to grow in Bensalem, she’ll try it out in the Poconos. All of Ashton-Hergenhan’s paintings are of plants grown in her home gardens.
“If I don’t grow it, I don’t paint it,” she says.
The piece she is most proud of is a sunflower seed head, a meticulously detailed work that took more than 200 hours to execute because of its geometry.
While this type of work may seem impossible for someone looking to enter the artistic world, Ashton-Hergenhan has some advice.
“There’s room in art for people of all interest and skill,” she says.
It is all about luck and timing, and anyone looking to try their hand at art should explore it. She says not all artists get sales right away, but passion is more important than money. Ashton-Hergenhan has done 75 to 80 art shows, and though she would have loved to sell at least one piece at each, that was not the reality.
Visitors who plan to attend the Bensalem exhibit can expect 30 pieces showcasing her prized home garden. Featured plants include vegetables, orchids and a sweet treat carrot that was almost for dinner one night until she noticed how fascinating its shape was.
Also displayed at the exhibit are the annual phasion and the arrowwood, a type of berry previously used by Native Americans to construct arrows, which now grows wild throughout Bensalem. ••
A Bensalem Gardener’s Catalogue is on display daily at the Bucks County Visitor Center at 3207 Street Road, Bensalem, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Sunday, April 23. Admission is free. More information on the exhibit can be found at visitbuckscounty.com. Carol Ashton-Hergenhan’s pieces can be viewed and purchased at cah-art.net/home.html.
Samantha Bambino can be reached at sbambino@newspapermediagroup.com
