SCULPTING A LANDSCAPE

View of the front-yard entrance featuring a circular-perforated concrete screen. Sterling Ruby’s Vampire stands guard.

View of the backyard through the concrete screen.

A collection benefits from generous space and privacy through Bonick Landscaping.

BY PEGGY LEVINSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN SMITH

As with any great architectural endeavor, a landscape needs to effortlessly meld with the home. This is precisely the way Glenn Bonick, owner of Bonick Landscaping, now in its 40th year, envisions each project. But in this case, the landscape is a place to showcase sculpture.

Tanya Wilson, the lead designer on the project says, “Tall holly hedges create total privacy from the street, as the owners wished to see nothing but green. The landscape was challenging, as it needed to be a classic space for a changing and ever-expanding sculpture garden as well as an intimate space for family gatherings.”

The homeowners, Christen and Derek Wilson, have an outstanding art collection. An atypical garden, the design is museum-like visually and in ambiance. “We wanted to create a landscape that had wide open spaces for great sculpture, but was also a contemporary, serene, and wonderful space to look at. We have so far included two works that we love by wellrespected contemporary artists,” says Derek Wilson.

On the front lawn is Vampire by Sterling Ruby, who had a solo show at the Nasher Sculpture Center and creates metal and fiber sculptures that often have a shadowy and sinister undertone while maintaining individual expression and social constraint.

On the front porch, a white steel screen with perforated circles offers a peek through to crape myrtle blossoms in the courtyard of crushed basalt. An allée grid of lavender crape myrtles creates a wonderful contrast of light and dark, producing intimacy in an open landscape.

The garden is a well-planned and -executed study in contrasts: the hard surface of the gravel and the softness of the delicate tree blossoms. The gray stucco of the house and white furniture contrast with the dark basalt. The tall holly trees create a vertical contrast with the horizontal lines. Tanya Wilson suggests, “crape myrtle trees are lovely in any season— soft-colored blossoms in the summer and stark sculptural branches in the winter.”

Residing in the courtyard, Garden Fork is by Irish-born, Londonbased contemporary and conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin, who fostered the Young British Artist movement. His sculptures are forms of the everyday that appear like line drawings in the air. “Being in the allée provides a soft contemplative experience, and Garden Fork creates a surprise element of whimsy,” says Bonick.

The entrance to the courtyard garden is through the home. The privacy created by the tall holly bushes surrounding the landscape is perfect for family living, with a green lawn, ample seating, dining spaces, and a swimming pool. The unadorned green lawn in the front yard is a perfect place for the owners to showcase and rotate their extensive collection. P

Michael Craig-Martin’s Garden Fork installed near the grande allée of crape myrtles.

Landscape designer Glenn Bonick.

Private family and entertaining patio seen through the crape myrtles.