Think Like an Artist—or a Gardener

Have you ever thought of your garden as a work of art? Maybe you spend months planning and plotting, considering what plants will look best where, or maybe you take a more abstract approach and scatter seeds like the paint in a Jackson Pollock painting. Whichever type of gardener you are, you are using visual thinking strategies, just like artists. Wander gardens and galleries this summer to learn more about the connections between gardens and art.  

Start your explorations by visiting Blue Grass, Green Skies: American Impressionism and Realism from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opening June 7 in the Freyer – Newman Center. Impressionist artists were famous for painting en plein air (outdoors) so they could directly observe the effects of sunlight on their subjects. What better place to paint outdoors than in a garden? Many American Impressionist artists were garden enthusiasts, including John Henry Twachtman, whose lush home garden became a painting destination for fellow artists, or Childe Hassam, who spent summers painting the seaside gardens on Appledore Island in Maine. 

After browsing the exhibition, head into the gardens to discover gold frames highlighting garden compositions reminiscent of American Impressionist landscapes. Artists and gardeners think about the same things in their work—emphasis, patterns, color combinations, textures, shapes and more all play an important role in creating a beautiful, cohesive garden, just as they do in a work of art.

“Art, to me, is the interpretation of the impression which nature makes upon the eye and brain,” Childe Hassam once said. Nature and art go hand in hand, whether you’re a painter, a gardener, or just someone looking to spend an afternoon outdoors. 
 

Full credit for "California Landscape": William Wendt, "California Landscape," oil on canvas, 1920. 31 5/16” H x 70 3/16” W. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Gift of James O. McReynolds, Robert Coulter McReynolds and Mrs. Edwin L. Harbach, in fond memory of their mother, Frances Coulter McReynolds and their father, Dr. Robert Phillips McReynolds.