At Pepsi HQ in NY, the employees have been given an area the size of 2 tennis courts to cultivate as they want in their breaks and time away from their desks.   While searching for pictures of the patch (which I couldn’t find) I discovered something else.  Seems Pepsi has long been a supporter of green endeavors at their corporate facility.  The Donald M Kendall Sculpture Garden that surrounds the Head Quarters looks to be well worth a visit.   It is 168 acres that are home to 45 major artworks by illustrious artists.

Click images to see more below.

Images from Sir pepsi, New York Times, Garden Visit and Terry Ballard

If you have hung around here for any amount of time, you know I am obsessed with inspiration…I love seeing where a creative idea came from and the process by which designers and other artists translate their inspiration into art.

So when Norway your Way  got in touch with me about helping promote a contest for designers I was happy to help.   Unfortunately (or fortunately – depending on where you live) this one is only open to residents of the UK, France, Russia, Germany, or Italy to participate.  (Becky gave me the inside scoop that they might be running this a second time after this first round and open it up to Americans and Canadians – I will let you know if that happens).   I think the prize is well worth the effort.

So here is the skinny, Norway is looking for creative types to create something inspired by Norway.  Something can be anything, film, poetry, photography, writing, music, original art of any sort (a garden perhaps?) — let your creative soul sing…

The more entries the better chance of winning, and the prize?  Five will be chosen and given an adventure and culture packed trip to Norway (one from each country) where they will be expected to blog, tweet, and share by whatever social media you use, your fabulous experience.   It’s a no loose — get creative, win a trip, combine creativity with travel.

Have you been to Norway?  I have, a few times (I even worked there briefly in my former geek life).  It is an easy place to be inspired by.  The natural beauty, and northern light is  breathtaking….(I simply must share my favorite picture of me in Norway – they have really fast ferries).

Norway your way contest is open until July 19th 2010.  All the details and how to enter are here. and one more thing….this has a voting element — where friends and family have to ‘like’ your upload, so if you decide to enter — feel free to email me and I will share your entry here so we can all go and ‘like’ it.

“Scenic vistas, winding paths, bucolic meadows, and rustic retreats suitable for solitary contemplation are just a few of the alluring naturalistic features of gardens created in the Romantic spirit. Landscape designers of the Romantic era sought to express the inherent beauty of nature in opposition to the strictly symmetrical, formal gardens favored by aristocrats of the old regime. ” -Art Daily

The Romantics looked to nature as a liberating force, a source of sensual pleasure, moral instruction, religious insight, and artistic inspiration.  This important episode in artistic and cultural history is the subject of Romantic Gardens: Nature, Art, and Landscape Design, on view from May 21 through August 29, 2010, at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York. The exhibition features approximately ninety texts and outstanding works of art, providing an overview of ideas championed by the Romantics and also implemented by them in private estates and public parks in Europe and the United States.

There are before and after’s by Humphry Repton (1752–1818).  Repton was the leading landscape architect of his time (the “Before and After” was a technique that he developed).  Additionally, there is  “entry no. 33,” -  the proposals  of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux for the design of Central Park.  They prepared presentation boards with the “present outlines” in photographs attributed to Mathew Brady and the “effect proposed” in oil sketches made by Vaux.   Not just and exhibition on Romanitcism, it sounds like an excting and interesting tour of garden design technique history.

Chelsea Flower show round-up – day 2 -  I am finding that perusing the details of the all the show gardens and displays at Chelsea is actually better online than in person….no jostling of crowds and the camera captures these small things so much better than the entire view of a garden. For judging the whole garden, I am afraid,…. you kind of have to be there.

Today’s post is all about the little things, nice touches and intricate details on display.

image by Chobie Chobes

This garden pergola caught my eye for the colorful glass and wood details that it presents.  I am betting that this rather simple idea for changing up the average arbor will not only provide shade and structure but interesting shadows and colorful light patterns…the white-ish stone floor probably shows this off well.

image by claire.ashman

That this pebble mosaic was created in the few short weeks that are allowed for building show gardens at Chelsea is amazing…they must have done some sections ahead of time.  And where will this go afterward?  I would love to know who the lucky gardener is who gets to tread this path.  It is simply beautiful and a masterful work of garden art.

image by thyme2003

This modern garden solved the problem that I have with many overly clean lined compositions. The planting is nicely highlighted by the stuccoed wall backdrop and the placement of sweet little bottles on the shelf creates a charming little vignette that gives warmth to stark modern design.

image by _nejire_

And finally, this closeup of a sculpture is such an interesting and exciting example of stone work detail.  I find it kind of meditative as I study the image and imagine the process that the creator went through to put this together.

Did you go to Chelsea and see a great detail or planting combination that you would like to share? Leave a comment, or send a picture here and I will post it on studio ‘g’ later this week.

Last week, I happened my way into an exciting new project that I want to share (and ask for a little help with).

It all started with the search for a Chinese goddess…(isn’t that a great way to start a story?)

My good friend (and yoga instructor) who teaches at the Fruitlands Museum caught wind of a goddess statue that once graced the grounds and she decided to try and find out where it went… Kiuanyn (or  Guan Yin who is the Chinese goddess of Mercy — and can be seen in the garden picture below) stood in what was thought to be the Meditation gardens of Clara Endicott Sears.

An amazing woman, Clara Endicott Sears, once owned a beautiful home on Prospect Hill in my town of Harvard.  She was an extraordinary pioneering woman, and as I learn more about her legacy, her beliefs and her path through life, my respect and sense of kinship with her grows.  Clara was, among many other things, the founder of The Fruitlands Museum and on the site of Fruitlands,  she had a beautiful home that she called The Pergolas. Clara had her own visions of beauty and designed her home and garden herself, refusing to allow an architect or landscape designer to force her into a prescribed vision of beauty.

The Pergolas before it was torn down shortly after Clara Endicott Sears died.

When my friend learned about Guan Yin, which lead to the meditation garden where she stood…she called me….and after a couple happy afternoons of twigs in our hair as we crawled through over grown brush playing garden detectives….I am happy that our initial research has paved the way for this piece of Clara’s extraordinary gardens to be restored…. I am so excited to be planning and guiding the garden restoration into reality.  Right now we are still piecing together, through pictures and on site investigation, what once existed and what remnants remain…

So here is where I am hoping you can help….here is what the garden used to look like and what it will resemble again. (I am not sharing what it looks like now as I am saving that for a later post once it is restored)

Every non-gardener who looks at this image says “oh wow….look at her beautiful lupines….”  but I am convinced they are wrong….those are digitalis – foxgloves right? back me up here (unless I am totally wrong) but the leaves are not lupine. I know it is hard to see but look closely — and while you are at it…if you can positively identify any other garden plants, I would love to hear it.  Also,  I think this may have been a white garden….given the limitations of black and white photography, as I study this, I am starting to come to this conclusion….what do you think?

(I have uploaded this in such a way so that, I think,  if you click on the image in the gallery, you will be able to see it at the full size -perhaps giving just a bit more detail)

Also — has anyone seen Guan yin?  Clara had roots in Peabody, MA as well as on Beacon Hill (Boston Brahmin)…and the original Guan Yin should be somewhere….have you seen it? in a museum?  She is apparently carved from ‘white fine veined marble’ (that is her on the left presiding over the garden).   Any clues any of you might be able to offer would be a huge help in this garden restoration project.

Do you find this sort of thing inspiring?  I do.  And I have a thing for fonts.

found at Neuarmy.