Woodfield’s Artist...

Cindy Hendrick grew up in the hills of western Connecticut in a pre-revolutionary farmhouse. There were few other houses around but there were hundreds of acres of woods and fields to explore and observe the many animals that lived there. And there was always a succession of wounded or lost animals coming through the house, which gave the artist the chance to observe animals up close.

These and many family pets provided studies for childhood drawings and personality studies. Art was always present in her home. Both parents were painters at one time, and Cindy's father was a cartoonist. He created a series called "The Mountain Boys" and his work appeared in various magazines and syndicated newspapers from the 1930s through the 1960s. He worked in a studio over the barn.

Paul Webb did his drawings on an old wooden drawing table with a metal base and an attached swivel shelf. He spread his watercolors out on a big butchers tray. Cindy uses these same items today to create her work.

Getting Started....
As a young child, Cindy would wander up to the studio where her dad kept a pile of scraps of matboard and old brushes for her and her sister to use, he probably kept them handy in self-defense! Besides her parents (and a sister who is also an artist and art teacher), Cindy was also influenced by the many children's books which they received every Christmas (and in between).. Tasha Tudor and Beatrix Potter were favorites, as well as Robert Lawson, Garth Williams, and the "Mother Westwind" series. Over the last four decades she has studied art at UNH, the Manchester Institute for the Arts and privately with many accomplished painters and artists. Cindy and her husband have raised three boys (the oldest is now a muralist, the next a musician, and the youngest is a luthier) as well as assorted household pets. Gardening is also a favorite pastime and many of the background flowers in the illustrations come straight from her garden.

Today she lives in another 200 year old farmhouse (Woodfield) in western New Hampshire with her husband and various animals, wild and domestic, overlooking the Connecticut River Valley.