A Potter's Garden: An Artist's Approach To Creative Garden-Making

By Robin Hopper

Robin Hopper is an internationally recognized potter, teacher, author, consultant, arts activist and garden designer. He has taught throughout Canada, and in England, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, Japan and Israel. His ceramic work is in public, corporate and private collections around the world. He has been a clay worker since the age of three and a gardener for nearly sixty years. His 2.5 acre “Anglojapanadian” garden at ‘Chosin Pottery (Metchosin, Canada) has been featured in many books, magazines and television programs. In 2008, the garden was voted one of the top ten in Canada by readers of Canada’s “Gardening Life” magazine.

This book starts with a brief background about Robin’s life and the role that his unusual childhood had in his passion for both ceramics and gardening. The second section introduces you to his one-of-a-kind “Anglojapanadian” garden, complete with a virtual walkthrough of it with pictures of each area. The third section looks at garden design principles through an analogy to the human body. The fourth section looks at the way that any knowledge of, experience in or appreciation of one or more areas within the art field can be utilized in designing a garden. The final section discusses the importance of the garden as inspiration and look at the role that the garden has played in Robin’s work as a potter.

Note: for optimal image-viewing, the book is best viewed as a PDF.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robin Hopper
• Release date: Jan 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310648175

Robin Hopper

ROBIN HOPPER is an internationally recognized potter, teacher, author, consultant, arts activist and garden designer.He has taught throughout Canada, and in England, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, Japan and Israel. His ceramic work is in public, corporate and private collections throughout the world. A clay worker since age three and gardener for nearly 60 years, his 2.5 acre “ANGLOJAPANADIAN” garden at ‘Chosin Pottery, Metchosin BC Canada has been featured in many books, magazines and television programs. In 2008, the garden was voted one of the top ten in Canada by the readers of Canada’s “Gardening Life” magazine.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Although I’m quite sure that the original real estate listing was much more flowery, this description would definitely have been more accurate. This certainly wouldn’t fit the description for a dream property … and most people would have turned and run, I’m sure!

I, however, knew that I’d found something special. It was like entering a cathedral. At the front of the house, Douglas firs – some over 700 years old - soared as high as 120 feet, forming an ancient grove with the driveway slipping into their midst. Imagine what was going on then in the world as these trees were starting to grow. The Crusaders were fighting the Muslims in the Middle East and Jerusalem was under siege! So what else is new!

I had always been up for a challenge, having renovated several other properties in two countries and indulged my passion for gardening over about fifteen years. Masochistic as it may have seemed at the time, the project entailed turning this mass of misery into a presentable family home, showroom, gallery, two studios and garden to entice people to visit. I wanted to sell our work on a retail only basis, as selling pottery any other way generally left a meager amount of income. I had found that out by several years of experience in both England and Eastern Canada. I felt sure that it could be done. Now I had to prove it!

I designed and drew up plans and secured necessary permissions. We started demolition of what was too far gone in June 1977. This included removing part of the house that was too decrepit to save, taking out fireplaces and chimneys, raising the rest to put in a proper foundation and crawl space, then expand the house by about 50%. Reconstruction followed with contractors until the house was fully habitable by mid-September with a hint of a garden. While contractors worked on the house, I worked on the studio with a couple of friends. We built kilns and started production. By the middle of October, we were ready to open the business. We had masses of free publicity via newspaper and television interviews and our first weekend saw visits from over 2000 people. Definitely off to a good start!

Since then, I have been developing a 2.5 acre garden with the concept of the garden as a work of art, a place of ideas, experiences and nostalgia, evoking memories and stirring the senses. This garden seems to have caught the attention of newspaper and magazine editors, authors of gardening books, photographers and film and video producers. It has become very well-known in the gardening community, with visitors coming from all over the world. For quite some time I tried to analyze what it was about the garden that intrigued people to such an extent. I have come to the conclusion that it works as it does because of the wide range of influences in the garden, the sources where I find my inspiration and the way in which a variety of different art experiences are combined to produce a new work of art where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. My intention in writing this book is to show how each of these experiences can be used in creating a truly personal garden.

The following sets of images show then (on the left) and now (on the right) shots of similar areas of the house and garden.

The end result has been well worth both the work and the wait! Paradise found.

Somebody once said Garden design must be the slowest of the visual arts. How true, but it is also one the most complex and satisfying of the visual arts, depending for success on a wide variety of both skill and knowledge, along with a healthy dose of imagination and visualization. This book outlines some of the non-traditional approaches that an artist might draw on in the formation of a garden of any scale. I hesitate to use the words garden design as it brings to mind highly structured, formula-based approach to the development of space in which personality usually plays a small role. I prefer to use the term creative garden-making as it opens up more opportunities for a very individual garden to develop, using humor, whimsy, nostalgia, fantasy and personal approach to build a garden that fully utilizes the imagination, life history and the interests of the gardener.

A garden is more than a space around a house where shrubs and flowers soften the edges of architecture