Position and effect
What size a garden can carry
Almost every sculpture in a private garden is too small. Not slightly, but clearly.
The reason is simple: the choosing happens in a hall, a studio or on a screen. There an object of 1.20 metres looks large. Outdoors, beside a pine, against the sky and with thirty metres of lawn around it, it disappears.
Two rules of thumb that hold outdoors
The open space around it sets the height. The further the eye travels past the work, the larger it has to be. A courtyard with four metre walls carries 1.50 metres. An open terrace looking down a valley needs 2.50 metres and upwards.
The wall behind it sets the width. In front of a long wall a narrow, tall object looks lost. There either a broadly set work or a group does the job.
Martin George | varnished steel
Photo: Sculpture Mallorca / Rolf Herbert Zscharnack
The test you can run yourself
Put a ladder or a parasol on the intended spot, go inside and look at it from the dining table. If you have to search for the object, it is too small.
We do the same more precisely, with montages at true scale. See Art Placement: seeing the decision first.
And if it turns out too large
It happens, but rarely. A work reads as too large when it blocks the path or when you cannot walk around it. Keep at least […] metres clear on every side and that will not occur.
What height your plot carries is worked out before you buy.