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The dripping
flowers of a goldenchain tree (Laburnum anagyroides) frame yet another
magical scene in Little and Lewis' Bainbridge Island sculpture garden.
Throughout the garden, tropical plants with their huge, spreading leaves
create big, splashy waves and walls of foliage, dividing the garden
into rooms and effectively screening and highlighting various views.
"This isn't a garden of tiny detail," says Lewis, "it is made to be
viewed from 10 feet back." |
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THE COLLABORATION of George Little and David Lewis was born a dozen
years ago, when they both worked in a Bainbridge Island bakery making
coffee. Lewis bought a garden fountain from Little, who then helped him
dig a pond, and they had so much fun they teamed up to build ponds for
clients. They combined talents — Lewis had spent several years as an
archeological illustrator in Greece; Little had experimented with
concrete for many years — and quickly discovered that they enjoyed
sculpting more than digging.
The two artists create side by side, and every piece is signed by them
both. Lewis sculpts and Little paints the reliefs, and they work
together on the larger pieces. Their sculptures are first formed in
wire, which they then cover with concrete, forming it, fleshing out the
shape of leaves, faces, fruit, fountains or cosmic eggs. As the concrete
hardens, it develops a rich patina with age and weathering. Lewis
describes the turquoise, rich greens, ochres, shades of terra cotta and
Pompeian red they favor as "bold but weathered; they look like they've
been around for millenia. The Romans used colors like these."
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| George Little,
left, is the artistic director and plant collector. David Lewis is the
business manager who tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to restrain Little's
plant habit. Little says, "The garden affects me the same way as
visitors. I like to wander around and dream in the garden, do my
creative work out there." Both men plant, weed and prepare the soil,
Little sweeps and waters daily, and Lewis says he is the one who frets
about it all. |
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Little and Lewis make objects unlike any we've seen before, drench them
in exotic hues, then integrate their pieces into a landscape familiar in
its floweriness yet ancient in its nearly archetypal forms. Their
sensual stage set of a garden on south Bainbridge Island serves as
studio, inspiration, outdoor dining room and art gallery. Even on a
cloudless day, the sound of dripping water reverberates off stucco walls
and turquoise columns, leading you to venture farther into the delights
of the garden. Huge leaves only partly obscure the dozen fountains
fashioned in the shapes of mushrooms, flowers, leaves, trees and ruined
Greek columns, and painted in Little and Lewis' trademark brilliant
blues and greens, coppers and rusts. The garden envelops you with its
vivid colors and oversized leaves, while it seduces with watery
acoustics and tropical fragrances. The mystery and enchantment deepen
when you chance upon an oversized hot-pink pomegranate or a water-filled
cosmic sphere holding a single floating leaf.
The garden has evolved without drawings, for the duo rely on impulse and
spontaneity for design ideas. "Not having a plan has allowed us to
approach the garden as a new canvas each spring," says Lewis, pointing
out that the varied groupings of potted tropicals transform the space
every year. Now that Little has bought the house next door, they're
bleeding the two gardens together, opening intriguing portals between
the two. "There's no hurry about it," he says. "The new garden will take
shape on its own." In the meantime, their little flock of pugs,
wirehaired miniature dachshunds and an aged basset hound enjoy the run
of the gardens.
You can have the run of the garden yourself, because the Little and
Lewis Sculpture Garden is open several days this summer and by
appointment. See www.littleandlewis.com. for information, directions and dates.
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| Boundaries between art and plants are skillfully blurred, creating an atmosphere of enchantment and surprise. |
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| "We make things
look as if they've been excavated, with pitted surfaces and washy
colors," Little says in describing the distinctive columns and leaf
forms he and Lewis create. |
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| Although the
garden is only a third of an acre, it seems much larger due to clever
placement of art and plants to obscure the boundaries. Verticality adds
scale and space, with potted plants placed atop columns and pedestals
while others grow up arbors and pergolas. An added benefit of gardening
in the sky is the chance to appreciate plants from unfamiliar angles. |
Valerie Easton is a Seattle free-lance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com.
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