kt, a very thought-provoking post... and I love the pictures. I hope you will post your befores and afters... unfortunately I don't have anything in the garden now except plants, but maybe next year that will change.

Thanks greening,
I was out surveying the garden earlier and this is a lot harder for me than I thought it would be. I think in the am I will take some photos in the black and white mode and maybe that will help me to tone down the riot of color and be able to really see the garden. kt

Great photos, and this is a great topic. My "garden art" is limited mostly to things that relatives give me as gifts and a couple of pink flamingos that are tucked in here and there. Excellent point that if an item is not contributing to the scene it is probably detracting, or at least distracting.

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the owner of a very nice garden shop in town for telling my DH that he could NOT under any circumstances buy the floor sample of the mermaid fountain he picked out for me and that, sadly, she could not restock it fast enough for my birthday earlier this month. Whew, that was a close one. I will buy just about anything from her now to make it up to her, what a nice thing to do.

I consider trellises, citronella torches, and bird baths and houses to be garden art, can we count them?

Your photographs, kt, are as usual, spectacular. I had never heard of Chihuly until a neighbor of mine saw one of his exhibits, and enthusiastically showed me her photographs (this one was in FL). Cool stuff.

My "garden art" is considerably less sophisticated, and less serious. Although, I do believe it's very personal, and you are "allowed" to do what you want...I try to use a subtle approach. The idea is to discover what I have put out there, while observing a plant. Some things are so small, you may not even see them at first glance. Some things get booted after one season, or one day!

I love dtd's flamingo. Everyone should have one of those classics!

Emily

Emily, I love the stained glass in the arbor - brilliant idea! I also hide a lot of my garden art, that makes it so much more interesting.

I have had glass "gazing balls" in the past; instead of putting them on pedestals I placed them under shrubs. It was an interesting thing the way the mirrored ones showed the underside of the plant.

I have only a couple more pics in my new garden art? album, below.

Katy, great photos. The folks there did a fantastic job of placing this art, really enhancing the plantings.

Alas, I am with Emily on the subject of garden art - mine (if you can even call it art, lol) is much less sophisticated. I've got a fairy here and there (thanks to my kids), a birdbath, a cheap japanese lantern, and a few porcelain mushrooms. Oh, and a few toad houses, which remain uninhabited after several years.

I think since my "stuff" is so unsophisticated, the placement is not quite as important as if it were real art intended to have a true visual and artistic impact on and in the garden. Which is a good thing, because it lets me off the hook artistically. I have such a hard time making decisions that it would take me forever to decide where and how to place a real piece of art.

My porcelain mushrooms sat wrapped and packed in the garage for an entire year because I couldn't decide where to place them. I finally picked a spot, and a week later a tree limb came down and broke one in half!

:)
Dee

{{gwi:1083458}}

Also love that piece of stained glass Emily..great placement too. :-)

I bought these iron stakes a number of years ago on a impulse brought them home stuck them in the ground where you see them. Occasionally I would use one or two to keep the oak leaf hydrangea branches off of a sprinkler head. They really never did much for me.

dtd,
Cool idea to use a gazing globe to mirror the undersides of leaves. Here is what Chihuly did with a bunch of glass globes.

KT, I definitely like the new placement of your fiddlehead sculptures better now.

I just bought a piece of garden art that has yellow,pinkish purple & purple in it and placed it in my garden to echo the pinkish and yellow colors of the flowers and foliage in the area. There is a purple Salvia 'Indigo Spires' to the right of the metal sculpture that should match it when the size increases. I don't like to have too many pieces next to each other, so I think I need to move the white plaster column in the background (that was there prior to the new piece) to another location. With this new piece of art, I might move it around to match flowers that are in bloom.

{{gwi:168015}}

Ooh, Katy, I love your iron stakes - and I like them even better in the ferns! I have something similar, but I don't have any ferns. I guess I'll have to do some plant shopping. ;)

Monique, what is that piece made of? It's quite interesting. And what is that gorgeous daylily?

:)
Dee

Great photos all! I too just have simple smallish things scattered about that don't require a lot of orchestration fortunately.

a few years ago, when my the whiskey barrel rotted, I saved the 3 metal rusty rings thinking they would contribute to a personal art project someday. They still are sitting in a pile waiting. :-(

dtd,
Your "dancer with rodgersia" is really cool, and, well- placed! I would love to find a piece like that...a very fitting garden piece...dancing through the plants. I also like the idea of gazing balls reflecting the underside of plants. I will have to try that...but, those balls are so darn expensive!

kt,
I, too, love your "fiddleheads" with the ferns. They are quite striking in that location.

Monique,
That spiky sculpture is a perfect color/shape combination for that setting. I held my hand up to the picture, to block out the white column, and I think your idea to move the column to another location is a good one. Right now, the spiky thing blends perfectly with the blues, pinks and greens that are in your garden.

Like, I'm an art critic??
Emily

I'm not sure if this will qualify for the Art Within The Garden title of this thread

but this certainly should :-)

ego45,
I love him!! You can't help but grin when you see something like that.
Emily

kt...that Chihuly reminds me of another one of his I've seen with a boat in a pond. Very striking and imaginative. I agree that the metal stakes DO look like fiddleheads in the ferns. Inspired.

dee...that fairy appears to be peeking around the flowers. Nice shot.

dtd...also liked all your garden finds. Especially the pink flamingo. Classic. [g]

monique...I agree that is a lovely vignette. Everything echoing off each other. Great find.

ego...that frog is one of the cutest I've seen. [g] Love his eyes. Is that a fountain in the first pic? Looks artistic to me.

I don't have a pic to share today. I am low on art in my garden. I do have windchimes and I have some ceramic animals...a blue bird and a turtle.

Enjoying seeing everyone's artwork. :-)

Great photos - Monique, that's a wonderful piece, and the color echos are perfect.

Geo, your fountain definitely qualifies as art; that's my favorite kind (of art).

I just suddenly remembered 2 stories about garden art, but I've already forgotten one of them, so you'll be spared.

When my DH & I started shopping for a house, we didn't *really* know each other all that well - we'd been living together (in sin!) for a few months but just knew this was a logical next step. He seemed TOO happy about everything ... so I said 'I can't wait to get a house. I'm going to go out and buy a set of life-sized deer for the lawn, and one of those cute little ceramic kittens to attach to the shutter. It will be so sweeeeeet!' He didn't miss a beat, and said 'Oh, that will work out perfectly, because I'm going to go out and buy a shotgun.' (This was about 25 years ago, and there are no fake deer, no kittens, and no shotgun in this family.)

I am still moving my art (junk) around and have yet to hit on something that I am happy with. I thought I would ask for some suggestions.I have seven chimney caps that are varying sizes and shapes. They were originally bought to be over sized chess pieces on a chess board (thyme & moss), but I have come to the conclusion that my moss garden is so high maintenance that I dont want to create something that labor intensive. As it is now I have them scattered through out different gardens with the only unifying theme that they are all in the back yard. Any ideas?
Again Chihuly shows us how to accent/mimic the lines of the surrounding flora.

Dee, I forgot to answer you. The sculpture is made of some kind of metal-not sure what exactly. The daylily is 'Indian Giver'.

KT-wish I had seen that exhibit!

Thanks Monique! I'll have to look around for that daylily. Very nice.

George, your fountain is beautiful. And I LOVE frogs, lol!

:)
Dee

monique, the colors in your art really work perfectly with the colors of your plants I suspect even Chihuly would be moved.
Ego, I love your fountain and your frog looks an awful lot like someone I know.

I didn't originally post this picture as I really just simply did not like the display. I realise the artist is trying to communicate the contrast between the soft plants and sharp glass spears but it still bugs me I am not sure if it is the color or texture but something is off to me. What do you think?

runktrun, I'm not much of an artist but to me that looks like it should be titled "Spears of Bloody and Painful Death". *G* Not really the imagery I usually look for in a garden!

Yes, it does look like a bloody and painful death, and yes there's the contrast between the soft fronds and the sharp glass pieces on a different level. There's also a contrast between straight glass (man made) and arching fern stems (nature-made) and a reflection of the fragile-looking fern stems in the fragile glass that are pretty interesting, on second look.

You have to wonder, though, if Chihuly had certain pieces whose placement with specific plants was more carefully planned, and some pieces that he thought would work in just about any setting with any plants.

You have to wonder, though, if Chihuly had certain pieces whose placement with specific plants was more carefully planned, and some pieces that he thought would work in just about any setting with any plants
dtd,
I had the same thought walking through the exhibit but have since spoken to a few people about what Chihuly had exhibited in different cities and it sounded as thought the art was very different and of course the plants would be as well.

I'm a big Chihuly fan, and wish I could have seen this installation in person. Thank you for the virtual visit through photos!

I guess I'm not big on garden art in the form of gnomes and flamingos, but I will say that I am amazed at what a little structure can do for the garden. I put up a metal arbor this year, and I created an edge for the adjancent flower beds by "planting" borders of largish rocks in the ground. It looks so much better! (I'm a big fan of rocks.) Defining spaces in the garden really makes a difference.

Hmm, I did not get disturbing contrasts out of the last photo at all - rather reminded me of a Christmas wreath, with lots of red candles - but then, I'm a simple soul.

kt- what terrific photos of terrific pieces. you have really made my day. so exhilerating! what i love about these pieces is that his work is so reflective of the tropical plants themselves. the long twisted pieces are often obviously influenced by actual tropical plant parts. in keeping with their surrounding plants, they add color and excitement to some otherwise more monochromatic visuals.
it's funny, i have seen many many of ch's pieces, and been to the tacoma, wa. museum that houses much of his work- but i have never before seen pieces so simpatico with their environment( certainly NOT the huge venice installation). your photos definitely rekindle my interest in him, so thank you.
i think your re-positioning of the iron pieces- amongst your ferns- is brilliant.

as to the bigger 'art in the garden' discussion, i do have a few thoughts. we have a lot of garden art throughout the gardens here, and most of it has some size. for me, the pieces provide contrast and counterpoint to the surrounding world of plants.however, even as they provide contrast, they must make visual sense for where they are placed.they also have personal associations for me, and some of them
( quotes and poetry) reflect my feelings and give me pleasure to read when i'm in my gardens. all of them make me smile. outwardly or inwardly. two large pieces make me laugh- and that is specifically why I purchased and installed them, though they are in our work area.

one rule that i have developed for placement is that i try to not have more than one art piece in any given 'visual frame' (unless they are symmetrically matching.)each garden room has its own artwork that is not visible from one room to another. the art pieces do not jump out at you. 'garden art' includes 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional sculptures, sculptures that incorporate movement- from water or wind,and some incorporate architecture- as a backdrop to the piece or as the piece itself. all this garden art is a real life saver when the gardens are not their most attractive (like now, with all the stress of the hot summer and when it's quite 'jungley' out there. i find them particlarly valuable in shady sitting areas where large swaths of non floral plants can really use the surprise element.

at the risk of sounding overblown, here is a poem that i keep over my desk- that says it all for me- about the gardens and about the art in the gardens.

I pray for an arresting beauty
a single span of pure delight
Intrude upon us. Give us pause
Be the deer in the yard,
the wine in the water cask,
the mermaid in the net.

-Thomas Donovan

surprise, delight, reflection, contemplation, nourishment- all the things i hope are provided by the art pieces throughout our gardens.

First, as a native Pittsburgher (here we go Stillers..here we go!) thank you for mentioning the Phipps I grew up going to the "flower show" as we call it,I have never found a conservatory that matches it. I was home this summer and saw the unique glass sculpters displayed so perfectly among the plants. I would reccomended my home town to anyone looking for a "road less traveled" long weekend. The zoo is great, there's a great amusement park, oooops sorry I'm alittle home sick!
Second what a great thread! I have a small stand of oak trees that I have been trying to find something to place in the middle, a large statue is out of my budget right now (old house lots of projects LOL). Thanks to all who posted pictures, they are great inspiration!
Sami

sami, what about a brightly painted chair?- to draw one in to sit amongst the trees....

mindy

one rule that i have developed for placement is that i try to not have more than one art piece in any given 'visual frame' (unless they are symmetrically matching.)each garden room has its own artwork that is not visible from one room to another
Mindy interesting point you have made me wonder if not following this rule has caused me to have a sense of clutter in my garden (the same feeling I get when I enter my overcrowded basement) rather than it's purpose to be a relaxing, contemplative, place to spend time. Hmmm I will have to go play and see what I can do. Thanks kt