Sculpture Can Bring Life to Your Garden
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Article by: Beau Smith I should know: I've been a sculptor most of my life, and I have plenty of years behind me of experience. Most of my sculptures reside in the gardens , Water s That Upset The Neighbours and landscaped outdoors , Flower Bulb Catalogs of residences. My work is also in public places , Early Spring Garden Guide: What To Do In The Yard And Garden Now such as parks and downtown areas. But in this article, I want to focus on residences. I'm going to suggest what kind of sculpture to look for. Let me begin by saying that your garden , Abatement Regulations Often Confuse and Do Not Make Sense and landscaped outdoors , Finding Garden Benches: Get the Perfect Look for Your Garden is a sacred place. , A Guide To Landscape Bridges But of course you know that, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this article. The outdoors , Water Gardens That Upset The Neighbours of your residence, being a sacred place, , Lawn Care Tips - Six Easy Steps to a Great Lawn deserves art that is exceptional. So you have to spend a little more for it. Listen, you get what you pay for. Further, you get the experience you pay for. The nice thing about original art is that, even though you pay more for it, you get more. The life of a work of sculpture should be indefinite. It should be able to remain outdoors , Teak Umbrella : Add the Final Touch to Your Patio without withering away. So, the initial investment is more. But you get more, a lot more. I would go so far as to say that original art for the garden , Abatement Challenges of Non-Native Noxious Weeds is the best outdoor , An Introduction To Vinyl Fences art investment, if, of course, you can find work that is truly art and not junk , Worm Composting Bin disguised as art. Probably, you will want to include, in your outdoor , Concrete Curb Landscaping sanctuary, human-crafted items that are not art: cement casts, gravel, , Introduction to Snow Blowers building , Abatement With DDT Concept Needs Second Look materials, and so on. Here, you want to integrate these items with the landscape. , Why Gardening is Better It is fine if the cement casting of Saint Francis has moss growing , Water Gardens That Upset The Neighbours on it. Ivy trickling over a retaining wall , When to Plant Vegetaibles is desirable. But when you put the art in this setting, you want to show it off. If you don't want to show it off, don't buy it. The sculpture should be the capstone, what brings everything together. The sculpture should enhance and amplify the life of your outdoor landscape. , Abatement Regulations Often Confuse and Do Not Make Sense The sculpture should provide a doorway into the majesty of the garden , Sprucing Up Your With Solar and landscape. , Pink Hibiscus All you need do is look at the sculpture and you feel a connection to nature. , Gardening Using Trees and Shrubs with Scent in Mind You can be looking at the sculpture from a window inside , Lawn Care Tips - Six Easy Steps to a Great Lawn your home, , Finding Garden Benches: Get the Perfect Look for Your Garden or you can be outside. , The Design Principle of Unity in Gardening and Landscaping Either way, the sculpture connects you to nature. , Ticks I don't, then, advise you buy works of craft , Palm Trees to deposit here and there in your outdoor landscape. , Theme Gardens Don't do that unless the work of craft , Abatement Challenges of Non-Native Noxious Weeds has sentimental value or is in some other way exceptional to you. Craft , Finding Garden Benches: Get the Perfect Look for Your Garden is cheaper than art: cheap in price and cheap in QUALITY. Instead, buy less and get more. If you can only afford one original work of sculpture, do that rather than buy many craft , Teak Umbrella : Add the Final Touch to Your Patio pieces. Your outdoor landscape , Rose Gardening is not going anywhere and neither is the art, especially if you secure it, which you should, and which it is possible to do without making such securing permanent. Before you become worried that you will have to pay dearly for original art, let me reassure you: You can find original art at a moderate and affordable price. You can find it on the Net and you can probably find it locally as well, especially if you live near a city. Many garden , Abatement Challenges of Non-Native Noxious Weeds shops sell sculptures on consignment. That's one good place , Ticks to look. But there are many. I don't suggest galleries because the work will be too expensive. If expense is not so much a concern, then go to the galleries. Go to the galleries anyway because here there is a weeding out process and you are more likely to find exceptional art and thereby have more awareness of what's good. For deals, you might find one at the gift shop of a botanical gardens. , Daylilies - The Perfect Perennial I have my work in the Atlanta Botanical Gardens , Tulip Divisions - Tulips and Their Identities gift shop. There, my work is moderately priced and exceptional. But what you can also do is look around a botanical garden , Winter Injury to Trees and see if you can find original sculpture that appeals. You can then inquire at the gift shop or at the front counter or call , Transplanting Tips the gardens. , Harvesting Herbs Because botanical gardens , Ticks and similar places , Ticks of beauty are set up primarily as non-profit, they are not going to want a large commission for referring an artist. As you know, galleries are infamous for insisting on taking a large portion of the sale for themselves, as much as 60 percent. I suggest going to the expensive places , Man Made Puddle to get a feel for good art (though not all of it is good, I have to tell you). Then shop around. The only danger here is that you may find, in the galleries, a sculptor you like so much you just have to own his work. Well, that's the danger. If price is an issue, I don't think this will be too much of a problem. How does one spot inexpensive-but-exceptional original sculpture? This is what you look for: Sculptures made with materials and techniques available to craftspeople and folk artists. The difference between craft , An Introduction To Vinyl Fences and art should be evident. Art is of higher quality. You will also know when someone produces higher caliber work because that work sells for more than craft, , Abatement Regulations Often Confuse and Do Not Make Sense but not so much more than you cannot afford it. A sculptor may have work that goes outside , Tulip Divisions - Garden Tulips and Their Identities of your budget. Many who inquire about my large frog sculptures decide quickly that the price is too high for them. Even so, my frog sculptures are incredibly affordable considering that I am a highly skilled artisan as well as a professional sculptor with over 16 years of professional experience. Further, the large sculptures I produce are comparable to bronzes, at a fraction of the cost. But I also produce smaller work that is quite affordable. I do so because I want people to gain interest in possibly buying a larger work later. Don't buy craft. , Theme Gardens A craftsperson makes the same thing over and over again. That's not art. It may seem that I produce the same thing over and over again. After all, I am making large human-size copper , Cast Aluminum Furniture frogs. How different can each one be? Very. Each piece is incredibly unique. I learn something from each piece I build. An artist can focus on one theme and never repeat himself, even though his designs , Daylilies - The Perfect Perennial may seem or actually be similar. A craftsperson who wants to make a living will often find he has to hire others to help him crank out his pieces. This is not art. This is moving in the direction of factory-made shlock. Even so, something made by hand does offer warmth and life that a factory-made item cannot. But wouldn't you rather have original art? Nature , Gardening - Plumeria Plant Care itself is so beautiful , Water Gardens That Upset The Neighbours that it deserves only the best from us. Very few materials can stand the test of time outside. , Finding Garden Benches: Get the Perfect Look for Your Garden Original art for outdoors , Daylilies - The Perfect Perennial will have to be made of metal, , Is it Really Teak Wood? Caveat Emptor! (Part One) clay, cement, stone, , Abatement Challenges of Non-Native Noxious Weeds glass, , Cast Aluminum Furniture or a combination. Wood , Teak Umbrella : Add the Final Touch to Your Patio will not stand the test of time outdoors. , The Exotic Rose of Sharon Neither will synthetic resins. One sculptor friend of mine recycles old farm , An Introduction To Vinyl Fences equipment and the like. He works primarily in stainless steel, and his work is exceptional. This is a method: Working with recycled metals. , Winter Injury to Trees Not every artist is capable of achieving art through any given medium, this one included. I have seen plenty of sculpture that is unexceptional. What makes a sculpture, or any other piece of art, for that matter, exceptional? Art has life. The sculpture lives, it breathes, it has substance and depth. You cannot help but to feel that it is a part of your landscape, , When to Plant Vegetaibles a force just as much alive as the plants , s To Grow Old With or The Constant Battle and the creatures that inhabit your outdoor landscape. , Sprucing Up Your Garden With Solar So plan , The Exotic Rose of Sharon for original art to live in your outdoor landscape. , Hydroponics Lighting: Blue Spectrum V.S. Red-Orange Spectrum Look around. You can find a deal and get original art that's good. It is worth the effort. Once you have the art, you enjoy it for as long as you decide to keep it, which may be for the rest of your life. Such a purchase, then, is worth taking time over. Happy hunting.Beau Smith is a professional sculptor with 16 years professional experience sculpting large, human-sized copper , Abatement With DDT Concept Needs Second Look frogs. He also writes about art. He has written and published one book on his sculptures, and written, designed, and published his web , Cyclamen site, beautifulfrog.com. |
  
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