Sculpture and the 2014 Home and Garden Show #2

Linda Meyer designed this booth for JP Stone Contractors.
She chose blue foliage plants of different shapes and textures to compliment my large relief panels.

It's only a 10 x 10 foot booth but it shows how good design makes a small space calm and inviting.
The pink flowers of the heather adds a quiet pop of color.

It's funny how our minds compartmentalize information. I love the look of this booth, all the while ignoring the necessary but ugly brilliant yellow caution tape marking the change in grade from floor to paving and the chaos of the next aisle of vendors.

Sculpture and the 2014 Home and Garden Show

You can plan all you want, but you never know exactly how a display garden will look until it's done.

Pam Kill of GreenGold Studio, designed the booth for the Association of Northwest Landscape Designer's. The judges gave our booth a gold medal!

Here's the column, an architectural fragment, newly functional as a pedestal.

The fountain is more architectural fragments, sewer pipe and an old concrete basin.
The acid washed concrete is a nice ochre that picks up the colors from the stone of the retaining wall.

The circular arbor, created by Dana Dokken of Bridge City Arbors, anchors the booth.

The surprise factor is the jewel colored sheer drapes. 

In Dana's car the material looked gaudy. 

But in the dark, cavernous space of the Expo Center, the fabric glows and invites you into the space. 

The lesson is that display garden is Theater and needs a WOW factor.

Next the other sculptures I have in this show!

Sculpture and Garden Shows

The studio is in show-time mode as I get ready for Portland's back to back garden shows,
The Home and Garden Show and the Yard Garden and Patio Show

I'll have 7 different sculptures in both shows.
The hard part is keeping track of who gets what art, when they need it and at which location!

Under wraps are two new laser cut steel cut panels going to the fabricators for bending and welds.
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The scene at the Expo Center..... I was soaked by the time I finished unloading the car.

These two flame panels are in a booth designed by Linda Meyer.
She chose blue foliage plants that will compliment these relief panels.
Can't wait to see how it looks planted out.

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These two architectural fragments were selected by Pam Kill for the display landscape of  the Association of NW Landscape Designers' booth,

 

Sculpture and Color

Think about Lucy's lips. They're not really that shape, especially the upper lip.
Most sculptors never think about the fact that color can overpower form.

Once you accept this humbling fact, you can turn it to your advantage and use color to redefine space.

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Just in time for the Home and Garden Show, this concrete column is becoming a pedestal.

It will be either up against a building or surrounded by plants.

What I don't like is the light base color of the concrete.

 Spray paint makes it fade away. That puts the focus on the plants.

 

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 Looking at this scene, on the studio's south side, I wished it had a bit more depth....

Hmmm. Get the spray paint! 

I painted the grey masonry bricks behind the Mahonia's trunks a dark brown. Voila!
It is in shadow year round so you can't really tell what color it is. It's just darker, that = extra depth.

Sculpture and the Green Man

I've been researching the Green Man for years. Frustrating how long it takes an idea to become reality.

My version of the Green Man is based on the acanthus leaf.
Most Green Men have human faces with applied foliate mustaches and beards.
Mine wants to be more eerie, as much plant as human. I'm liking these recent drawings.

Here's the latest drawings and clay sketches above.  Earlier versions below.

This seemed a good start for a fountain design, there are many paths for water to trickle down.

But as I got started on it, he seemed too clownish. Or maybe I ran out of courage....

Sculpture and the Winter Garden

Snow changes everything in the winter garden.

 

 A snowhawk for the little lion and an egg for the architectural fragment.

 The temple bell in the monastery, quiet in the hush of the garden.

 A lap robe of white, his meditation undisturbed.

Sculpture and Drawing

We were invited to a Super Bowl party.
I'm not a sports fan, but after working in the garden all morning, I was tired so the idea of sitting down appealed to me.

The nice thing about people watching television is that their attention is focused on one spot, allowing me to draw without comment or fuss. Their dogs were interested in the food, so this dog's drawing happened in fits and starts at I drew a bit each time the dog looked at me.

Sculpture and Landscape Design

There are sculpture gardens where art is seen in a natural setting. And then there are "natural" settings where the site and how it's landscaped IS the art.

Documentary film maker Thomas Piper is working on a feature of Piet Oudolf and his gardens.
Think it all looks so "natural"? Watch for the colored planting drawings to see what care is taken in achieving this look.

Piet Oudolf documentary teaser from Thomas Piper on Vimeo.

Sculpture and Flowers

Years ago, I showed several botanical relief sculptures at the San Francisco Garden Show.

Oriental lilies by Patrick Gracewood ©2014

On a break from the booth I saw my first yellow clivia. Exquisite. Only $90 for one small plant!
Being from Oregon, where much of the nation's nursery stock is grown, I thought I could get it for much less back home. Wrong. They were even more expensive. (which made me want them even more.)

Being patient, I went online and bought several seedlings. And waited and waited and waited.
After 10 years of coddling, I resorted to the gardener's ultimate threat: "Bloom or die!"
I put them in the unheated attic room with west light and forgot about them for three months.

Went upstairs for something and checked on the plants. Surprise! The yellow clivia is blooming!
It's amazing how long it takes to learn patience and trust that things will bloom in their own time.

A good lesson for this sculptor.