Gardens and Art

 

Were I to do it all over again, and neither television nor painting were in the cards for me, I can say with confidence that I could find life-long pleasure and satisfaction as a gardener.  

I've been drawn to gardening as long as I've been a homeowner, which is to say almost all of my adult life.  And while the pleasure and beauty of gardens are well known and appreciated by most everyone, so wonderful are they that they warrant a deep analytical dive as to the nature of their particular charms.  Normally, this blog is reserved for matters of visual art...and by no means should gardens be precluded from that subject.

Perhaps the most obvious personage to link artist and garden is Claude Monet.  Not only are his water lillies some of the defining works of Impressionism, but his gardens in Giverny to this day remain a major tourist draw for fans of the painter.  

Monet's garden at Giverny

Monet's "Water Lillies"

So, it's time to make the case for the garden as a work of visual art.  They share much in common: composition, form, structure, colour, light and shadow.  Their primary intent (save for vegetable gardens) is to provide us with visual stimulus. 

The strategic placement of stones, the clusters of perennials, the statuary, the flowering shrubs or hanging baskets...all these elements combine to create the overall picture.   These then, are the carefully-considered brushstrokes of the gardener.

Like art, gardens tell stories.  They can connect us with the past.  They are often, literally, monumental. 

But they're also alive.  Their pretty greens, blues, yellows and pinks return year after year.  All on their own.  They grow.  They spread.  They evolve.  

Gardens are places for fish to swim and birds to bathe.  

And there's no shortage of local wildlife to drop in and take advantage of their Eden-esque offerings.  

A Red-breasted Grosbeak pays us a visit

Even in the dead of winter, they lie under a mantle of white, temporarily dormant, ready to spring to life once again when the weather warms. 

There are few things I enjoy more than seeing the garden come back to life in the spring...the buds on the trees, the pointy shoots of the hostas, and the beautiful blues of the crocuses...so hell-bent on returning they don't even wait for all the snow and ice to go.  

It's a bit incongruous to me that such a simple thing can provide so much pleasure.  This faithful annual return to life seems to suggest a universe that will forever carry on in its way.  Perhaps giving it a helping hand is a labour of love that connects me to something bigger.  

And finally, could there be a happier, more inspirational place to set up the easel and paint?  

So if you have your own masterpiece of a garden, or the next time you find yourself in somebody else's, spend a moment to fully take in the beauty of these living works of art.  

Oh, and it's a great place for a beverage or two.  Just saying...