| Selecting the Perfect Garden Sculpture |
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by Elizabeth Schumacher
"A garden is the result of an arrangement of natural materials according to aesthetic laws; interwoven throughout are the artist's outlook on life, his past experiences, his affections, his attempts, his mistakes and his successes." Figurative sculpture in the garden can be one the best examples of the importance of a focal point. The sculpture can anchor a planting bed, lead the eye in a new direction, or provide a year-round accent visible from inside your home. So sculpture is important from a design perspective. Even more importantly, sculpture is a wonderful opportunity to personalize your garden and reflect you particular interests. Figurative sculpture evokes an emotional response from the viewer and, because it is engaging, it will make your garden memorable.
I have seen effective garden use of all kinds of sculpture. Heroic figures of gods and warriors such as Diana, the huntress, suit some gardens. Other gardeners have commissioned bronze sculptures of children or grandchildren or have selected one of the many charming figures of children available. The adventuresome have placed a surprise such as a rhinoceros partially obscured by plantings.
One caveat. It is very important to think about scale when you choose a piece. With figurative pieces, the easiest way to handle this is to pick a life-sized piece. If you are not able to do this, you must create a setting that is in scale witht the size of the piece you have chosen. To create this setting, you may use miniature or dwarf plants or, conversely, large plants with big leaves or bold forms. Scale is not an easy concept outdoors with no roof or walls and with living plants constantly changing. Don't forget the purely practical aspects.
Hand-carved stone can be an original piece or can be a copy of an old traditional design or an earlier art work. Many hand-sculpted statues come from Vicenza, Italy. These are generally reproduction pieces from classical European gardens. Italian sculptures are mainly limestone. This softer stone allows excellent detail and develops a wonderful antique patina fairly quickly but may need some protective silicone coating to keep it from absorbing moisture and breaking down during freeze thaw cycles. Some sculpture from Mexico or Bali can be even softer and will not hold up in northern winters. Vermont and other granite is so hard that it will last for centuries and consequently looks new in a garden for a very long time. Lead is the classic material for English garden ornaments. This relatively soft material needs no maintenance and keeps its pleasant soft gray over the years. Virtually all pieces are reproductions or known figures, and the parts of the sculptures are formed in molds. Because lead is so heavy, it can bend and break it if is not well supported. The workmanship quality can vary, which leads to different price ranges. Lead was originally used as a cheaper alternative to bronze. (Early lead planters were often actually made by estate plumbers.) Lead is still less expensive than bronze and can allow more delicate detail, which is important in figurative sculpture. Antique iron sculpture, especially from France, can be wonderful but is very expensive. Antique iron is much more resistant to rust because the quality of the iron was much better then than it is now. All iron needs some sort of protective coating, however, or it will eventually disintegrate. Because of the maintenance problems, little iron sculpture is done today.
There are also reproduction bronzes cast in Thailand, where there is a long history of making bronze Buddhas, say. These are not original pieces of art and are not limited edition but can still be delightful and long lasting. Bronze ages with an attractive green hue and can last with little maintenance for a long time. If you want to keep the original patina, then you will need to protect it with wax. A new group of materials for garden sculpture are resins and fiberglass. I have seen spectacular imitations of bronze, iron, lead, and stone in fiberglass. This material is lighter and easy to move and also extremely durable for outdoor use. Resins really require no maintenance. Whatever the material for your sculpture, you must provide a stable base anchored below the frost line in your area. Without this, the ground can heave and topple even the heaviest of your carefully chosen pieces. Once seated firmly on a stable base, no matter what the season of the year, sculpture will enhance immeasurably your pleasure in your garden. |
If you have an existing garden, first decide what you are trying to accomplish with the sculpture. Do you want to create an emotion or establish the feeling of a certain period? If you want to lighten the mood, consider a joyous lead figure like "La Brezza" - or The Breeze - with her arms outstretched to the sky. If your home is French Country, thing about continuing the feel with Anduze pots or something that evokes the feel of France. A contemporary home be the best place for a modern figurative or abstract bronze or serene Japanese water basin or lantern.
A formal garden can be effectively accented by lead or cast stone figures of the four seasons or musicians along a wall or border. Pet lovers use sculpture of their animals near an entrance or at the edge of a planting bed. All of these emphasize the important contribution of sculpture -- individualizing and personalizing your space.
Cast stone will probably be the least expensive. Although this material is occasionally used by artists, most pieces are mass produced. The latter can still have artistic merit and can look great as they age but eventually the aggregate in the cement mixture will be exposed, which may impact the detail. Cast stone can vary widely in quality: dry cast statuary is the most expensive, and it resembles carved stone most closely. The beauty of cast stone is that it needs little or no maintenance.
Bronze is the Rolls Royce of garden materials. Most original art in the United States is now done in bronze using the lost wax method, which means that the artist works on the wax model of each casting. This labor-intensive process is expensive but results in true limited edition art that will appreciate in time.