OPEN GARDENS & STUDIO . {in season open by appointment }
After many years of creating gardens on my property, in 2025 I was invited to be part of the Belfast Garden Club Summer Tour. On July 12, two hundred and twenty one flower and art loving visitors meandered through the gardens of yarrow and scabiosa, coral bells and lamium, sedum, hydrangea, foxglove, driftwood found while beachcombing Maine islands, and ceramics on tree trunk pedestals. Beyond this outdoor exhibition, in my studio, a selection of works were on view along with tumblers, filled with small bouquets. At bottom, a piece I wrote about the experience.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PAINTING A GARDEN . SUMMER 2025
This summer, I focused almost all my energy on my garden. I had a clear goal, because last fall I received an invitation to be a part of the Belfast Garden Club's Summer Tour. When I received the invitation, I didn't plan to do much new work, thought that nothing would radically change, and that I wouldn't add too many new plants to my existing garden beds. Well, that didn't happen. In fact, I ended up examining and redesigning almost every flowerbed on my property. It was true joy.
Every morning I couldn't wait to wake up and look out the window to see what had grown. What had changed? Which plants were taller? Which buds had bloomed? Looking out at the garden from my second-story window, day after day, week after week, I examined the colors, trying to create what I had in mind: Paintings. Fields of specific colors. In total, I had thirteen flowerbeds to consider. At the end of the process, six beds were almost completely redesigned, five were partially modified, and two remain essentially unchanged.
The main differences now are the overall palette of colors, and the heightened sense of playfulness in what are perhaps unusual combinations in vignettes of flowers and objects. This year, I ramped up the color, and not because I added many annuals. A common strategy for increasing color in a garden is to add annuals, but I didn't want to approach the design of my compositions this way. I wanted to add more perennials whenever and wherever possible, so in the most colorful and complex bed, I added salvia, yarrow, scabiosa, veronica, and a purple butterfly bush, timed to bloom in mid summer. Purple, along with pink, is a color I used as a common thread throughout my property. Moving from one bed to the next, these colors mingle and blend into a dialogue with other chosen colors: burgundy, orange, blue, and a touch of yellow here and there. I used yellow sparingly and carefully, a pale yellow that isn't too bright. Also,I almost never choose white flowers. For me, white in the garden tugs and distracts the eye, like a dominant highlight in a photograph or painting.
In addition to the flowers and shrubs in each bed, each of the thirteen beds has a carefully placed tree stump, on which I've placed one of my ceramics. This is a significant detail, perhaps the most significant. Because ultimately, my gardens are an extension of my art studio inside my home. They are a studio open to the sun, rain and stars. And they are an amplification of my work, my sensibility, my approach to visual art. I love juxtapositions and find there's a certain beauty when something wild and raw coexists with something delicate and refined...like the partially burned wood I brought back from an island campfire, which stands between a mass of pink phlox and a handmade ceramic vessel on its tree trunk pedestal.
Every aspect of this project and preparing for the Tour brought me great satisfaction. Hands in the dirt, hours and hours of digging, weeding, watering: I loved every minute. And I must say I was a little lucky with the weather, which alternated nicely between rain and sun.
And so, on July 12th, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, 221 people came to visit my gardens, my studio, my partner’s studio, my home. It was a colorful blur, a unique experience that was simply wonderful. Of course I have many other thoughts on this second part of the experience, but those would require another essay!
This summer, I focused almost all my energy on my garden. I had a clear goal, because last fall I received an invitation to be a part of the Belfast Garden Club's Summer Tour. When I received the invitation, I didn't plan to do much new work, thought that nothing would radically change, and that I wouldn't add too many new plants to my existing garden beds. Well, that didn't happen. In fact, I ended up examining and redesigning almost every flowerbed on my property. It was true joy.
Every morning I couldn't wait to wake up and look out the window to see what had grown. What had changed? Which plants were taller? Which buds had bloomed? Looking out at the garden from my second-story window, day after day, week after week, I examined the colors, trying to create what I had in mind: Paintings. Fields of specific colors. In total, I had thirteen flowerbeds to consider. At the end of the process, six beds were almost completely redesigned, five were partially modified, and two remain essentially unchanged.
The main differences now are the overall palette of colors, and the heightened sense of playfulness in what are perhaps unusual combinations in vignettes of flowers and objects. This year, I ramped up the color, and not because I added many annuals. A common strategy for increasing color in a garden is to add annuals, but I didn't want to approach the design of my compositions this way. I wanted to add more perennials whenever and wherever possible, so in the most colorful and complex bed, I added salvia, yarrow, scabiosa, veronica, and a purple butterfly bush, timed to bloom in mid summer. Purple, along with pink, is a color I used as a common thread throughout my property. Moving from one bed to the next, these colors mingle and blend into a dialogue with other chosen colors: burgundy, orange, blue, and a touch of yellow here and there. I used yellow sparingly and carefully, a pale yellow that isn't too bright. Also,I almost never choose white flowers. For me, white in the garden tugs and distracts the eye, like a dominant highlight in a photograph or painting.
In addition to the flowers and shrubs in each bed, each of the thirteen beds has a carefully placed tree stump, on which I've placed one of my ceramics. This is a significant detail, perhaps the most significant. Because ultimately, my gardens are an extension of my art studio inside my home. They are a studio open to the sun, rain and stars. And they are an amplification of my work, my sensibility, my approach to visual art. I love juxtapositions and find there's a certain beauty when something wild and raw coexists with something delicate and refined...like the partially burned wood I brought back from an island campfire, which stands between a mass of pink phlox and a handmade ceramic vessel on its tree trunk pedestal.
Every aspect of this project and preparing for the Tour brought me great satisfaction. Hands in the dirt, hours and hours of digging, weeding, watering: I loved every minute. And I must say I was a little lucky with the weather, which alternated nicely between rain and sun.
And so, on July 12th, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, 221 people came to visit my gardens, my studio, my partner’s studio, my home. It was a colorful blur, a unique experience that was simply wonderful. Of course I have many other thoughts on this second part of the experience, but those would require another essay!
