getty garden, light and shadow

I try to stop by Robert Irwin’s Cen­tral Gar­den at the Getty Cen­ter when­ever I’m nearby. This early august day was bright but cool, a per­fect day for a stroll through the gar­den to see what new things I’d find.

If you’ve never been to the gar­den, it divides into two large parts: a cen­tral bowl hold­ing a maze of two col­ors of clipped aza­leas and its sur­round­ing plant­i­ngs, and, above it, a straight water­course that is shaded all along its length by Lon­don plane trees, a cousin of the Amer­i­can sycamore.

This trip I was con­cen­trat­ing on how the idea of light and shadow, dark and light played out in the over­all design and plantings.

To expe­ri­ence the upper water­course, you fol­low a path that zigzags back and forth. It takes you in and out of the shade and shel­ter of the trees, let­ting you expe­ri­ence the bright Los Ange­les sun­light and how it con­trasts with the dap­pled light the trees pro­vide in the spring, sum­mer and fall.

The water­course near the top of the Cen­tral Garden

The water­course, the shel­tered core of this top gar­den, changes from a noisy stream with large stones in its path at the top, to a water­way that glides qui­etly over a tex­tured streambed down below.

The effect of the dap­pled sun­light is repeated in the plant­i­ngs. Dark, almost black-leaved, plants alter­nate with light-colored ones. In this photo it’s almost hard to dis­tin­guish the alter­nat­ing light and shadow of the trees above from the dap­pled plant­i­ngs below. It’s a lit­tle con­fus­ing, a tad dis­ori­ent­ing. And if you’re fas­ci­nated with the effects of light and shadow as I am, you might find it a qui­etly thrilling experience.

Even this lit­tle detail, a plant­ing of suc­cu­lents, plays with con­trasts, light and dark. It’s a lit­tle cor­ner that would look great in a home gar­den, and here it fur­ther helps to rein­force the vibra­tions of light and dark in the upper garden.

When I first saw the gar­den I thought the plant­i­ngs were a lit­tle chaotic. All this light and dark, all this con­tin­ual con­trast­ing of col­ors and plant shapes seemed rest­less. Small doses would look great as perky lit­tle con­tainer plant­i­ngs, but it seemed way too much of a good thing. It seemed like a lit­tle Eng­lish cot­tage gar­den doped up on steroids.

But I’ve been chang­ing my mind. All this crazi­ness rein­forces the intense vibra­tion of con­trasts that you expe­ri­ence walk­ing the zigzag path.

Once you make your way out of the upper por­tion of the gar­den you’re set free into the rel­a­tive calm of the lower bowl. There’s no more zigzag­ging in and out of the shade, there’s no more quick shift­ing from light to dark. Still, the sunken design of the lower gar­den ensures that one of the sides will expe­ri­ence shade dur­ing most of the day. And the plant­i­ngs down here, still alter­nat­ing dark and light, tell you that you’re still in the same garden.


Yes, each trip here I see some­thing new. But I also real­ize that mak­ing this kind of gar­den hap­pen is such an extreme com­mit­ment of resources and labor.

I haven’t quite fig­ured out a way to pho­to­graph the cap­i­tal out­lay it takes to keep this gar­den look­ing great. But I’d like to end this post with a trib­ute to the heroes, those ded­i­cated gar­den­ers who make this place a gar­den worth vis­it­ing sev­eral times a year.

Thanks, guys!

August 07 2010 06:30 am | Categories: art • gardening • landscape design • places | Tags: • •

8 Responses to “getty garden, light and shadow”

  1. ryan on 07 Aug 2010 at 9:33 am #

    A gar­den I’d like to check out. That first bird’s eye of the gar­den seems like the best view. I won­der what it feels like to be tasked with main­tain­ing that maze.

  2. Denise on 08 Aug 2010 at 7:32 am #

    Yes­ter­day I was won­der­ing how the Getty gar­den is look­ing this August after such a mild sum­mer, so your post is timely. The path through shadow and light, along­side the sight and sound of water disp­pear­ing and reap­pear­ing, is one of my favorites too. Irwin really nailed it.

  3. Jean on 08 Aug 2010 at 4:18 pm #

    James, This is fas­ci­nat­ing. I love your photo of the con­trast­ing succulents.

  4. Loree / danger garden on 08 Aug 2010 at 7:41 pm #

    It’s on my list. Thank you for the reminder not to let it drop off.

  5. colleen miko on 10 Aug 2010 at 12:16 pm #

    I’ve only been to the getty gar­den once, but I remem­ber being blown away by the color com­bi­na­tions of both flower and foliage and think­ing the water course was genious. I, too, was struck by the grand­ness of it. I’d be curi­ous to see how the gar­den has evolved since I saw it and also, how my own per­spec­tive has evolved. I didn’t go in for the spi­ral of aza­leas in the cen­ter of the water that appeared to me as the shape of mickey mouse’s head, but who knows now.….

  6. ricki - sprig to twig on 10 Aug 2010 at 5:00 pm #

    And thank YOU, James for the splen­did overview. I saw this gar­den in its infancy. Now I’m think­ing of excuses for another trip south.

  7. Wendy on 10 Aug 2010 at 6:48 pm #

    This is a beau­ti­ful gar­den! I like the idea of vis­it­ing with a par­tic­u­lar ele­ment in mind — look­ing at the light and dark. I would prob­a­bly never tire of this place.

  8. Donald on 02 Mar 2011 at 7:42 am #

    Awwww — I can still smell the circl of Soci­ety Gar­lic in my head!

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