Synopses & Reviews
Garden designers face some daunting questions: How do I begin the creative process? Where can I find design inspiration? How will I know if my design is successful? If you approach these questions like an artist, with an artist's tools and ways of looking at the world, you will be able to design gardens that combine the unique character of a place with your innermost creative spirit. You'll make inspiring gardens that have real meaning, for yourself as well as others.
In this luminous volume, landscape architect and artist W. Gary Smith explores the various means that artists use -- including drawing, painting, sculpture, meditation, poetry, and dance -- to create personal connections with the landscape that enrich and inform garden design. Part 1 focuses on simple techniques that anyone can use to nurture creativity, unleash the imagination, and get ideas down on paper. Part 2 shows how these techniques have shaped actual design projects -- with spectacular results.
Throughout, the author's friendly and encouraging voice removes the shroud of mystery surrounding the creative process and shows how even the least artistically inclined can tap into inner resources they never knew they had. Smith's own exuberant sketches and bold paintings illuminate the path from art to landscape.
Infectiously engaging and unfailingly inspiring, this eye-opening book deserves to be read and reread by anyone who aspires to master the rich and demanding art of garden design.
Review
"Encourages gardeners to think like artists." Seattle Times
Review
"An expansive volume filled with projects designed to teach a landscape architect how to conceive of projects artistically."
Review
"Encourages gardeners to think like artists." SciTech Book News
About the Author
One of North America's leading landscape designers, W. Gary Smith specializes in botanical gardens and arboretums, as well as public art installations and private gardens, often weaving together local ecological and cultural themes.
He received the national Award of Distinction from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers for his work on Enchanted Woods at Winterthur Museum & Country Estate in Delaware and for Peirce's Woods at Longwood Gardens and the Stopford Family Meadow Maze at Tyler Arboretum, both in Pennsylvania. Peirce's Woods also received a Design Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. His recent work includes the new Santa Fe Botanical Garden, the Gardens Master Plan and the Children's Garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, the Discovery Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Therapeutic Garden at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Alabama.
He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.