The Inspired Garden: 24 Artists Share Their Vision

by Judy Paolini, Nance Trueworthy (Photographer)

Overview

It's not surprising that visual artists would create particularly interesting gardens. Besides a trained eye, they use their penchant for fearless artistic expression. This book offers a most unusual personal look at 20 spectacular private gardens in New England that will inspire readers to look at their own gardens with fresh perspectives. Lavishly illustrated with color photographs, the book features eye-opening interviews with the artist/gardeners, in which they explain their aesthetic approach to garden design.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892727377
Publisher:	Down East Books
Publication date:	02/16/2009
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.90(d)

Editorial Reviews

Like good choreography, fine garden design is often more subtle than it first seems. Judy Paolini's The Inspired Garden walks us through 24 New England private gardens that display the touch of true artistry. Paolini's text, synchronized to 200-plus color photographs by Nancy Truesworthy, indicates the singular combinations of texture, form, and color that distinguish each of these outdoor "canvases." A feast for the eyes and an aesthetic education.

This lushly photographed book allows readers to take a summertime ramble through the backyard gardens of New England artists, the gardens handsomely captured by Trueworthy at the peak of their glory. Plant close-ups and landscape shots (along with nice shots of the artists in situ) are intermixed superbly. Whether or not the artists' own installations, also on display, will inspire readers to become sculptors, painters, or metalworkers, the blooms, groundcovers, hedges, and pathways are sure to inspire horticulture, especially in the colder USDA hardiness zones. Paolini provides extensive narrative about each of the artists and their concepts of design for their work and their gardens. (It's worth your life to figure out where in New England the artists live, but readers who don't just skim the text will discover that most are residents of Maine or New Hampshire.) This is not a practical guide: there are no indexes or formatting by specific location, type of garden, or plants. Readers will need to turn elsewhere for instructions on plant selection and care. Yet, ironically, this book may prove to be the real gardening muse. Strongly recommended for all public libraries serving USDA zones 3 through 6, maybe even 7!
—Margaret Heilbrun

Library Journal