Designer-Gardener

The 2016 growing season has been a different one from the past, well, all other growing seasons. Normally it is dedicated to landscape and garden design. This year it has been dedicated to gardening.

Last fall I lost my head gardener at Rivendell, the private estate whose landscape & gardens I designed in the fall of 2007. I started working there last September to fill the gap and after the winter thaw I rounded up some under-gardeners and began again. 

This unexpected professional shift has been a wonderful and scenic detour. Many of the great designers in the UK have a background in gardening, which was one thing I realized while living in London. I felt a lack in that area as I knew it in theory, but not so much in practice. This year I have been developing personal relationships with the plants I placed so many years ago...understanding their needs and strengths, and what they have to offer a design on a more intimate level. Paying closer attention to flowering times, overall habit, color combinations, what pairs well, potential problems...I feel strengthened as a designer and am the better for it. 

Spending so much time in the gardens of Rivendell has encouraged me to work towards my goal of having and developing my own garden to enjoy, care for, and grow with over the years. I hope it happens sooner than later.

Some recent photos of the gardens and landscape:

SHOP

The online shop is open! This is a momentous occasion for me as I have been working on this for over a year. A long year of testing and trying out a variety of papers, image sizes, finished paper sizes, print methods, etc, etc. etc. Every decision made has been a deliberate one and I look forward to developing my career as an artist. 

 

Back to preparing prints!! 

Lx

May 07, May 17

These are important dates for me this month. And here's why:

On May 7th*, this coming Saturday, I have been invited to participate in a local Avenues art show. I will be displaying ten of my black and white photographs from The Great Salt Lake Portrait Series. I have been going mad trying to pull everything together in time for this event.

This free evening will be from 6:00-9:00 pm at the LDS church building on the corner of 2nd and J Street in Salt Lake City. I have heard that live jazz music will play from 6:00-8:00 followed by a harpist from 8:00-9:00. Also, light refreshments will be served. So if you are in the area, please come and enjoy an evening of local art!

On May 17th, a Tuesday, I launch my online shop where I will be selling prints of my Great Salt Lake photography. (!!!). Mostly my black and white work will be for sale, but there will be a few color prints available. The process to open shop has been more involved and time consuming than I had imagined, plus I become OCD and get hung up on all the details to figure out, and there are so many details! But it's finally coming together and more info about the shop will be shared as we get closer to the 17th. And actually, it feels great to have a deadline, though there is still a lot to do pre-launch.

Wish me luck!

*May 7th also marks my 9th anniversary of starting my landscape design business. There is much to celebrate this weekend!

Red World

The red landscape in this Birdy music video is transformative. I am captivated. The gardens, grounds, and wood are powerful and strong. The aurora borealis only adds to the magic.

I would love to have a go at designing a space so formal and so grand....

Plus her coat?! I love the detail on the shoulder seam.

Dare Greatly

I think if you watch something over twenty times it should be posted to the blog.

That way I can easily come back and watch it again and again.

Rainy March

March ends with several rainy days and my mood matches this image.

Landscape designed by Jinny Blom, a garden design hero of mine.

Landscape designed by Jinny Blom, a garden design hero of mine.

#desertwander

SLC > Great Basin > Death Valley > Joshua Tree > Sedona > Organ Pipe Cactus > Saguaro > Monument Valley > Page > SLC

I've just returned from a 13 day Desert Wander. It's my first day back in the studio and I am avoiding the menial task of unpacking and reorganizing. There's also the to-do list to write up and a plan of productivity to execute and manage - but I am having a difficult time wrapping my mind around any of it. Being March 14th, everyone is talking about making pie and eating pie, so that's distraction enough to keep me from doing the necessary.

I have left the blue skies and warm temperatures of the southwest for a grey, wet, northern Utah March day. And the week going forward is forecast to be much the same. At least it's cozy to be inside.

I went on my Desert Wander for 3 main reasons. There are plenty of sub-plot reasons, but I'll just go over the main plot: to see the wildflowers, to collect colors, and to create interpretive landscape sketches.

The wildflowers were the absolute best in Death Valley, California. The superbloom is happening right now and if you still have an opportunity to experience it first hand, I highly recommend it. It was vast, impressionable, and memorable. I am so glad I decided to include Death Valley into my route as it wasn't in my original plans. Aside from the over abundance of blooms, the landscape itself was stunning and begs for me to return. I found more delightful desert blooms beyond Death Valley, little surprises tucked in along the banks of sandy washes and hidden along trails away from the road. I felt lucky to see a Prickly Pear show its fuchsia flowers (my first!) and hope to someday be in the desert at the right time to witness the magnificent blooms of the great Saguaro. 

Collecting colors for a felt project I've started called   M I N M A L   N A T U R E   wasn't quite as successful as I had originally imagined, but successful enough to move forward and I am happy to slowly progress this collection forward.

The interpretive landscape drawings were what I was most curious about. I had an idea of my approach, but wasn't exactly sure how it would develop. I think that's partly what I loved about it, the unknown and then the exploration to discover. As I progressed in the creative process, the main influencers for this project became: the principle of negative space, the influence of Impressionism, creating art on location, and letting the hand do the thinking. I took several different drawing and painting mediums with me, but ended up sticking with colored pencils and sketch/drawing paper - which was the idea initially. I am interested to also work with oil pastels and basic crayons. This will be an on going project [ LAND MARKS ] and I plan to fill many, many sketch books as I continue my Wanders. I am not sure what the end product will be yet, but I am off to a positive start and am plotting where to sketch next.

I will be writing more about these two projects, Minimal Nature and Land Marks, as they and I evolve.

If you would like to see more of where I went, I documented my trip via Instagram: @lorienhallstudio

Roberto Burle Marx: The Brazilian Modernist

Roberto Burle Marx: Landscape architect, painter, printmaker, ecologist, naturalist, artist, and musician (and probably a few other things). I am surprised I haven't blogged about him before now, and if I have, I have entirely forgotten. January is a good time for re-visting the lively and vibrant - to contrast the grey and overcast days of off-and-on precipitation. And so here are some wonderful images that show Burle Marx's amazing versatility and signature, yet timeless, style. (Click on images to enlarge).

Having lived in Brazil, I appreciate the inspiration and influence of his work on a more personal level. It is to me, so Brazilian, after all. Though he was quite avant-garde and ahead of his time. His work is like the rhythm and movement of a great samba. Full of energy and an easiness that makes you feel good about life in general.

I never tire of Roberto Burle Marx's aesthetic. It is so interesting. And I think this month I will spend more time re-exploring his life and career to be reminded of what shaped his design sensitivities and how he moved the design world (specifically landscape) into a modern direction.

January means...

...the start of a new year, resolutions and goals, hopefully some good snow in the mountains, turning another year older, tax preparation, and reading lots and lots of garden magazines. I start out well enough in the early spring...reading them as they come through the post. But as the growing season unfolds, the pages to Gardens Illustrated, among others, do not. So now I have a stack of over 30 magazines to work through, many still in their plastic sleeves.

A list of magazines I subscribe to:

  • Gardens Illustrated
  • Garden Design
  • The English Garden
  • Dwell 
  • Can't be bothered with AD right now, too many adds!
  • Sunset and Horticulture are good ones, but I paused for the year.
  • As far as digital mags I check in with regularly (I feel like these are the obvious?): Contemporist, Designboom, Architecturelover.com, Dezeen, Yellowtrace.

What am I missing? Any Recommendations?

January 1, 2016

On January First, Two-Thousand and Sixteen, I woke up and rearranged my studio.

Since I was a child, rearranging my living space on a regular basis has been a normal part of life. Because, after all, what if it could become a better space? And an even better space after that? I read a NPR article a few minutes ago, talking about New Year's resolutions. It suggested that instead of starting with ourselves in regards to change, we may want to begin by changing our environment. "How can I change my environment to maximize the odds that I'll act like the person I want to be?" A valid point, I think.

The rearrangement of my studio is to provide for an area dedicated to painting. I have been wanting to do this for a very long time and now I think the studio functions better for all creative endeavors, not just painting. It's a move in the right direction and now we will see how changing my environment changes me and my productivity in the quest to become a more prolific designer and artist.

 

The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean- 
the one who has flung herself out of the grass, 
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down- 
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, 
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, 
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Lorien in Black and White

I started going out the Great Salt Lake last winter. I had returned from London a few months prior and more often than not I found myself stranded in my thoughts and activities. So when I didn't know what to do, or where to go, I came here. Out to the sand and to the salt, out to the water. It became my refuge and my sanctuary. An empty space to empty my mind even when it was seemingly numb. I started taking photographs of my trips, capturing the nuances and the moods of that wonderful and mysterious landscape. Somewhere along the way I edited a photo in black and white. A friend asked to buy a print. Then the idea for this gallery was born; strictly and respectfully black and white photography of the beautiful Great Salt Lake.

This week I am focusing on opening my online shop where you will be able to purchase prints of my photography from my IG accounts: @lorieninblackandwhite, @lorienhall. My friend, who requested that print a couple of months ago will finally see it arrive in the post, and if you would like one to arrive in the post as well...very soon that will be a possibility!

A sampling of my feed. (See the entire gallery and follow along for new Great Salt Lake photography through my Instagram account: @lorieninblackandwhite  )

No Alarms

I don't set an alarm to get me out of bed in the morning - something I quit doing about a year ago. Starting my day with an alarm is stressful and annoying to me, and the stress starts the night before when I set and check, and later double check my alarm, to make sure I didn't select PM instead of AM. So unless I have to catch an early flight or a meeting, I trust my body and brain wake up when they're ready, which usually, is pretty early (though not so much if I go to bed unreasonably late). In fact, I sometimes talk myself through that trust of waking up early the night before.

That trust of body and mind carries over into the design world...trusting in yourself and your ideas...that you can and will create something wonderful and interesting if you continue the pursuit with awareness. That's partly what these little paintings are doing for me - a moment where I am learning and willing to trust myself and what can emerge if I just sit down and do. 

Third Thing In The Morning Watercolour and watercolor pencil, 4x6", 2015

Third Thing In The Morning Watercolour and watercolor pencil, 4x6", 2015