Sculpture and Flowers

Carving took a back seat when I was asked to make two more bouquets for Ivy School graduation.
I said "Yes" and then realized the peonies were shot and the garden was in recovery mode.

The teacher told me that graduation was Tuesday afternoon, but called Monday at 10:30 to tell me

that she'd made a mistake. Graduation was in two and hours!

That's when I made the decision to stay calm and repeat "Done is better than Perfect."

The alstro was tired, the delphinium were shattering, but flowers for a grade school graduation are like funeral flowers. Full bloom is better than buds as they only have to look good for a short while.
Make a good impression, then everyone leaves the room....

Done and delivered an hour before the ceremony... Now can I get back to carving?

Sculpture and Flowers

You can learn some of the principles of sculpture by arranging flowers. 

It's about contrasting shapes and tracking the negative spaces between flowers.

I think of my arrangements as sketches that smell really good.

Here's a sampling of sculpture arrangements from seasons past.

 

Not a great bouquet, but loved it with the surroundings!

Boutineers are the fussiest things imaginable, but great fun when finished.

The Garden in Spring

This year, the sculpture garden is more beautiful than ever.
Shall we take a tour?

The 6 foot tall carving is dwarfed by the giant sequoia, the axis mundi of this garden.

After 9 years of Oregon growth, I spent the winter pruning and editing and re-landscaping.

The other reason it's so beautiful is that I've been outside in the garden, all winter and spring, carving. Not just watching the seasons change, but experiencing them physically.

While carving I notice moments of warm sun before the heavens open up with hail and pouring rain.
Pausing to look up from my work to watch geese and crows fly overhead, hear the jays tugging fibers off the palm tree for their nest. Standing in one place during the day you can feel the the air change during the course of the day.

At the entrance to the garden, Rhododendron loderi, Venus is intensely fragrant.

Welsh poppies, Meconopsis cambrica, are spreading along the Buddha's path.

The newly re-landscaped front of the studio, dwarf apple trees to grow on the new trellis.

The tree peony Boreas.
Good thing I built a trellis and tied it up, or weight of the blossoms would break the branches.

A chorus of viburnums run the width of the garden.

 

Another fragrant Rhododendron, King George, at the turn of the path.
Thank god for green because all the blossoms in this section of the garden are red, white and blue.

Which means this tree peony lutea ludlowii is on the other side of the yard.
Not a lot of blooms this year but the bees are happy.

Sculplture and The Garden

A big project requires major procrastination.

That fact dawned upon me halfway through re-landscaping the entire front of the studio.

But by then it was too late to turn back.

The rational was: 1.The planter was trapping rain water too close to the studio. 

                             2. Not enough soil and moisture to support healthy bamboo.

                             3. I wanted to focus more attention on the large relief panel.
(yes, cleaning up toys and projects would be a good start.)

Turns out the bamboo had break out plans of its own.

You can see this runner was prying up one of the 160 lb blocks.

Time to dismantle the entire thing and start over.

Move each block to storage area.

Thank goodness the driveway makes it easy to roll them away.

Clever to remember the bamboo guy. He came, dug it up and took away the bamboo. Whew.

Now just move all that dirt somewhere else.

Moving a dwarf spruce, and all the succulents created a temporary nursery/holding zone.

After all that work, a blank canvas, but plenty of ideas to make it better.

Sculpture and 2014 Yard Garden and Patio Show

I spoke with garden designer Linda Meyer months ago about new art for her Yard Garden and Patio  garden. How would my paper cut, the little tree, look as a 40 inch square steel panel?

It's been a an expensive learning curve.

The sunflower panel was pretty straight forward. But on this project, because of the scale and the detail involved the laser factory used nitrogen instead of oxygen. That doubled the price. An oxygen cut would have melted the metal. And instead of a shiny surface, there is this dull nickle coloring that has no contrast. No time for powder coating. Get the spray paint......

 Once there is a decent contrast, I'm pleased with how it looks.

 In fact, I love it. It's like an illustration for a dream or fairy tale.

With many different people working on a big display garden, there are things you can't predict.
The circle on the left is centered on the entrance to the women's bathroom. Not an ideal focal point. But it has better contrast of light with the dark panel than the panel on the right that looks into the neighboring garden.

A three day garden show takes months of work!

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 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 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.