Art adds another layer of personality to a garden. You can use plants to create structure, focal points, seasonal interest, and screening, or you can add art or artifacts to perform some of those functions. The interplay of art and nature, and of artist and gardener, can add interest. Art can frame or direct attention to a plant, and plants can echo motifs or colors in art.
Keeyla Meadows, whose most recent book is entitled Fearless Color Gardens: The Creative Gardener's Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel, talked about color, art, and gardens at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show last month.
Flowers give her permission to be bold in her use of color in art and landscape design, according to Meadows. Not only do they express passion in nature, but flowers also keep bees, dragonflies, and birds alive, she said.
The vibrant colors she uses on garden and house walls remind me of the work of Mexican architect Luis Barragan. Meadows takes cues from plants to “extend” color in the garden. For instance, she painted a wall raisin-burgundy to match the leaf accents in zonal geraniums at its base. Inspired by purple-tinged succulents, she painted a nearby wall in another garden deep purple.
Meadows described how to create a color palette for each garden zone. Start with a seed color, such as yellow. Referring to the color wheel, find a color to harmonize with it, such as light pink. Then look for a contrast, such as purple. Finally, extend color into the whole space. For excitement and boldness, use more of the the contrasting color. For flow, use more of the harmonizing color.
“Talk to your color muse,” she said. “Take one flower color into the hokey-pokey dance” and follow the color stream one way toward warmer colors, and the other way toward warmer colors. “Keep referring back to flowers for color.”
“Weave white or silver through the whole picture,” she said, “rather than waving a white flag.”
For more inspiration, you can visit her garden in Richmond, which has open hours in the summer. Another gardener/artist worth visiting, Marcia Donahue, also has summer open hours at her garden in Berkeley.
If you want to learn how to make your own garden art, an easy and economical place to start is the California Native Garden Foundation's monthly workshops. Held at Middlebrook Gardens in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood, each 2-hour third-Saturday event features an artist who shares a skill and offers artwork for sale. Most workshops are free with a small materials cost. Preregister at cngf.org.
Artists who have taught CNGF workshops include mosaic artist Christina Yaconelli, basketmaker Charlie Kennard, mirage-panel fabricator Noah Briel, and blacksmith and metal sculptor Tom Layman. At the March workshop, Layman helped participants create a metal flower for their gardens.
Alrie Middlebrook, whose garden designs often incorporate art inspired by native flora and fauna, said, “The world can be a better place if both [artists and gardeners] are encouraged to flourish.”
© 2010 Tanya Kucak