Backyard art park: an artist turns her garden into a sculpture gallery

Sunset, Sept, 2002 by Peter O. Whiteley

"We set it up like a city park," says artist Ginny Davis of her ever-changing backyard in Napa, California. The rectangular half-acre is divided into freeform zones: an open grassy area for groups and playing, intimate sitting areas for midday relaxing, sheltered places for enjoying a meal, and a pool for swimming laps. Davis's studio opens directly to this landscape through sliding doors. Indeed, the garden is a kind of outdoor gallery showcasing her metal and kinetic sculptures and collections of found objects. She uses the garden to show clients how works of art can blend into natural settings.

Davis and her husband, Tom, have been designing, adding to, and re building the garden for 13 years. Now berms, rock walls, masses of plants, serpentine pathways, three arbors, a dining pavilion, and a colorful garden shed provide the backdrops for her collection.

The garden had a head start on the sculptures, which began to appear after Davis took metalworking classes at a local community college. Her pieces are usually cut from big sheets of steel with a plasma torch. She draws inspiration from everyday experiences; for example, the 3-foot-tall ravens dotting the lawn are modeled on real ones that cawed rudely at Davis when she swam laps early one morning.

DESIGN: Ginny Davis (www. metalgardenart.com)

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Conversation areas are good places for conversation pieces. Here, beside the trellis, are metal sculptures and an elaborate birdhouse.

Old objects can acquire new uses. Davis is a skilled recycler. The trick is to look for objects that can be adapted to new contexts. She discovered a pumphouse at a yard sale and turned it into a colorful garden shed. A column jutting from one of the berms near the pool's end (shown left) was a drainage "second" from a local concrete dealer.

Color can unify a landscape.

One visual theme unites this space--purple. "It's a soothing color for gardens," explains Davis. One of her largest berms is covered with catmint (Nepeta x faassenii), which has soft purple flowers and also makes a seductive place for her four cats to loll.