A Garden for Sculpture

A chic, minimalist garden is the perfect setting for sculpture.

Written by Carole Ottesen Photographed by Lou Mazzatenta

For more than 20 years, Terry Pogue fielded gardening questions as host of WGTS's Plant Talk while maintaining, with her husband David, a spacious garden outside and an orchid collection inside.

After moving to a new house with a small garden in 1994, Pogue gave away her orchid collection and retired. The couple was free to concentrate on a shared passion: collecting art.

Designed and built to display their art, the new house had the big walls and natural light necessary to show off their collection of paintings, sculptures, and whimsical furniture. Pogue decorated the interior with the same goal in mind.

"I wanted basic, muted colors everywhere so the art pops out and you're not looking at a sofa or wall," she says. "I want the art to catch your eye with nothing to distract or interfere with the art."

To properly display outdoor sculpture, the garden, like the house, had to provide a neutral staging area for sculpture. Plants had to be the horticultural equivalents of beige in a design that was both strong and restrained.

"You could put fun sculptures in a flower garden and that would be amusing," says Pogue, "but if you like what I think of as more serious art, it wouldn't work in an English flower garden."

The Pogues were fortunate to have landscape architect Colleen Bugler of Colleen Bugler Associates (CBA) as a friend. Bugler designed a landscape that would compliment, but not compete with sculpture and presented her serenely beautiful plan as a housewarming gift. Chic and minimalist, her design includes a raised bed of Hosta 'Krossa Regal,' a triangular stone terrace that is stunning in its simplicity, screening which includes Heritage river birches and yews, and beds of ivy.

The dark texture of the ivy sets off "Earth Goddess," a high-fired clay sculpture by Michigan artist Mark Chatterley, that looks like weathered stone. Viewed from inside, says Pogue, "you can look out the downstairs window right straight into the eyes of Earth Goddess."

A second sculpture in the garden is "Tiara Column" by Lisa Scheer, creator of the "Pegasus" sculpture that welcomes visitors to the city at Washington's Reagan Airport. Composed of hollow copper, it is part of a three-dimensional triptych "Triad," says Pogue, "that we bought in 1997."

On a bed of gravel in front of a deep green yew hedge, a third sculpture, a large ball constructed of copper-covered steel wire, has turned a handsome verdigris. Nicknamed ’"Orb" by the Pogues, it was purchased at the Baltimore Craft Fair in 1998 from basket artist Cindy Luna.

"Luna," says Pogue, "was selling these little copper balls," using the Orb as a container to hold them. On the lookout for sculpture that would reflect the garden's design, the Pogues "offered to buy the Orb on the spot."

It isn't always easy to find pieces you love and "it's hard to find creative pieces that tolerate the weather," says Pogue, who takes pleasure in the dialogue outdoor pieces have with the changing light.

"Our orb doesn't do much for me in the daytime," says Pogue, "but I'm wowed every time I see it lighted at night. Then, it's magical."

The best place from which to take in the night-lighted view of the sculptures is from a small, circular deck that steps off the family room. It is itself a work of art. Constructed of Brazilian walnut (Pao lope), it won CBA an award for workmanship.

"When you look down from the deck," says Pogue, "you see the sculpture and the Heritage river birches" - a brilliant marriage of landscape and art.