COMPOSITION IN THE GARDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 7

COMPOSITION IN THE GARDEN

COMPARISON WITH THE PAINTER’S ART. (By Egbert Hatis, in the Christian Science Monitor). It is custormary to liken the gardener’s skill to the painter’s, art, but our gardens are not yet sufficiently picturesque fully to warrant this comparison. Ti planting of flowers and shrubs is by no means the only factor in 1! art of garden picture making—we must take advantage of the natural beauty about us that needs only the emphasis of frame, comparison, and contrast to ’-e brought out and enjoyed. It is surprising what can be achieved by removing a few branches of a tree to open a bit of sky, frame a distant church spire, or bring out the attractive gable of your neighbour’s house, in or can we anticipate-the improvement that comes after opening a vista in the woods to let the sunlight cuine in and play with tree foliage and trunk. After all that is what the painter does, as we may see by watching him for a few moments at hia work. Why do we admire a landscape painting? Is it because a few hundred acres of nature are concentrated on a canvas a few 'inches square? By no means, for the camera can do this with far more precision. The painting moves us because it shows us the landscape not as it looks to the physical eye but as the painter “ saw ” it. PLAY OF LIGHT AND SHADE. It follows that “to see ” is the painter’s first art. His physical eye is supplemented by the eye of imagination and feeling. He is not influenced by the “ fact ” that a barn _is white, painted with the best white paint obtainable. No, he “ sees ” the golden sunlight flood its'top while the lower part of the building is shaded almost a dark blue—and since he paints what he “ sees,” he portrays for us on his canvas the ever delightful play of Tight and shade. Everyone has watched the rails of a railroad “ come together ” at a distant point—an “ optical illusion.” The painter copies an “ optical illusion ” on his canvas and by doing so gives the effect of distance. He gives “ depth ” to a perfectly flat surface. He creates a third dimension where there were only length and breadth, applying the fundamentals of linear perspective, A painting is really a record of optical illusions. Do you remember that mountain range covered with dark green spruces which you climbed? Yet when you were driving home and after 10 miles or so looked back all that you saw of the mountain range was a hazy blue surface. Better still—look at a tree near by and not the green colour of its foliage. Then look at. a similar tree with the same green foliage a little farther away. You will see that the green of the farther trees is lighter in shade than that of the one near by. That is because colours lose their intensity as distance increases. FRAMING THE PICTURE. , Now what can the gardener, even he who has only a small area to deal with, learn from the painter? First of all-we can learn from him how to frame our pictures either by a .judicious removal of branches or even trees to open up views or by the selection and planting by shrubs and trees suitable for that purpose. Let ua have our garden foreground made up of trees and shrubs with defined outlines, strong foliage, preferably evergreens, either conifers or broadleaved. Then if we wish to secure distance on our small lot we can apply with exaggeration the fundamentals of linear and colour perspective. If, indeed, the visional meeting of parallel lines creates distance, it follows that if we make the garden walk narrower toward the distant point, creating what is called a false perspective, we shall make it look longer. The same idea can be applied to the lawn expense or any vista by converging the planting lines. Also, if colours lose their intensity as distance increases, it follows that shrubs or trees with gray or light, foliage planted at the farther end of our shrub border will•> again increase distance. CONTRASTS IN FORM AND TEXTURE, We can also learn from the painter the art of securing pleasing effective contrasts by the use of shrubs with different heights, form, and texture. Make the outline of all your shrub borders irregular in outline, height, and texture. Study the different shrub forms classified by their habits as follows: upright, horizontal, or drooping; by their colour, dark or light; and by their texture, coarse or fine. Plant evergreens at the corner of bays in the shrub border—they will be accents of interest without destroying the unit. Create interest via the method of comparison and contrast; nothing emphasizes the size of a giant more emphatically than his ■ comparison with the elf. When we have learned the painter’s method we will find that we as gardeners enjoy greater privileges. The painter can only give us a glimpse of nature at a theoretical moment of repose when the sun stands still, when shadows creep no longer, arid the constant movement of sky is arrested. The gardener knows no such limitation, His picture is a succession of pictures: first, the sparkling dew of the dawn on delicate calicles responding eagerly to the rising sun. Then the joy of a dazzling world of colours when the shadows are the shortest and shade most welcome. Finally, but with the promise of another dawn—the setting sun paints with richness the most beautiful picture of all—a lingering tulip reaching high to catch the sunlight, the sunlit top of a cedar clump, golden spots on a cool green lawn a 'thousand and one pictures conceived in one design. 1