AN ARTIST'S GENTLE HANDIWORK BRINGS FRAGILE PLANTS TO LIFE THIRD Edition

• Published in: The Boston globe
• Main Author: Marantz, Steven
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, Mass Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC 04.05.1986
• Subjects: Heins, Esther
• ISSN: 0743-1791

In a few more days the tulip tree would be rendered complete, astonishingly lovely and real, to join the [Esther Heins] collection of catkin, rhododendron, long- stalk holly, white pine, swamp maple, witch hazel, smoke tree, weeping willow, dogwood, paloverde, catalpa, winged euonymus and dozens of others. As one of New England's foremost botanical artists, Heins sees trees and flowers as shy subjects for her canvas. Having taken up the ancient art midway through her career as a commercial artist, Heins' genius has only recently begun to be recognized. One of her paintings, "Tree of Heaven," is currently displayed at a Museum of Fine Arts exhibit called "Birds, Beasts and Flowers." She is regularly published in Horticulture magazine, has done three covers for the Journal of the American Medical Association, and is working on a book for Harry N. Abrams Inc., publisher of fine arts books. Four of her paintings are on exhibition in Munich. A worn notebook contains Heins' first botanical efforts, drawn almost 35 years ago. Her daughter was holding her grandson on a garden bench, she recalled. She sketched a trillium, a branch of apricot blossom, a branch of sumac, a miniature red geranium, and "a young pear tree, its branches aglow in the sunset."