--- title: The garden is a gallery. You just haven't hung anything yet. description: "The garden is a gallery. Frieze Sculpture is on until 1 November: a journal entry on sculpture in gardens, from Farleys to St Ives, and no space too small." image: https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/hubfs/Main%20Images/Farleys%20House%20and%20Garden%20Sculpture%20Everything%20But.png --- [Skip to content](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/blog/garden-sculpture#main-content) [![everything-but-galoshes](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/hs-fs/hubfs/everything-but-galoshes.png?width=3201&height=408&name=everything-but-galoshes.png "everything-but-galoshes")](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/home) - [DECODE](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/blog/tag/decode) - [MUSINGS](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/blog/tag/musings) - [KNOW-HOW](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/know-how) - [THE EDIT](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/the-edit) - [ABOUT](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/about) - [DECODE](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/blog/tag/decode) - [MUSINGS](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/blog/tag/musings) - [KNOW-HOW](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/know-how) - [THE EDIT](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/the-edit) - [ABOUT](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/about) # Not everything in the garden needs watering [Everything But](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/blog/author/everything-but) [Musings](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/blog/tag/musings) ![](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/hubfs/Main%20Images/Farleys%20House%20and%20Garden%20Sculpture%20Everything%20But.png) Garden sculpture What happens when art leaves the gallery and takes its chances with the weather. Every October, London gets terribly excited about art. The part I'm looking forward to happens outside the tents, where eleven sculptures sit among the trees of Regent's Park with no white walls and no flattering lights. Just art, out in the weather, getting on with it. Frieze Sculpture is on my list for next week. Something imposing in a gallery can turn playful on a lawn. I've always thought the setting was half the work. Outdoors, it might be more than half. I particularly want to see Douglas White's *Black Palm*, a life-size palm made from reclaimed tyre rubber, and Catriona Robertson's *WYRM*, which looks as if it wandered out of a myth and decided to stay. Both take discarded materials and turn them into something strangely organic. Neither blends in politely, which is exactly why they're interesting. And that's the thing about art outdoors. The garden doesn't just provide the backdrop. It gets involved. Grasses soften hard edges, branches frame unfamiliar shapes, and the weather has absolutely no respect for the artist's intentions. Before anyone rushes out for a bronze hare, look at what's already there. An old twisted trunk. A clipped mass of yew. Seed heads left standing into winter. The most interesting gardens have something to look at when nothing's flowering. Shape, silhouette and texture do the work that colour does in summer. It's why some gardens look wonderful in February while others seem to disappear. What sculpture parks understand is breathing room. One thing in the right place, at the end of a path or in the view from the kitchen window, can do more than ten things competing for attention. ## No space too small I photographed this horse in Sóller, Mallorca, standing on a resident's first-floor balcony beside a potted cactus, as if it had stepped out for some air. ![Soller Balcony Horse Sculpture Mallorca Everything But](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/hubfs/Main%20Images/Soller%20Balcony%20Horse%20Sculpture%20Mallorca%20Everything%20But.png) The balcony is barely deeper than the horse. It's completely absurd, and I loved it. And it proves a point. You don't need acres of landscaped gardens or a particularly serious art collection. A front step, a window box or a courtyard the size of a tablecloth can hold something that makes a passer-by look twice. Scale matters far less than conviction. There's another reason to take art outside. It doesn't stay still. Bronze develops a patina, stone gathers lichen, timber silvers. And the changing light reveals different shapes and shadows throughout the year. On now Frieze Sculpture, Regent's Park Eleven international artists in the English Gardens, at the south end of the Broad Walk. Free, no ticket needed, until 1 November 2026. My trip is next week. Look out for *Black Palm* and *WYRM*. Others I recommend too **Farleys House & Gallery**, Chiddingly, East Sussex Lee Miller and Roland Penrose's remarkable home, with a sculpture garden designed by Penrose. Art with a little surrealism in its bones. Open Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays and selected Saturdays until 30 October 2026. **Henry Moore Studios & Gardens**, Perry Green, Hertfordshire Moore's monumental bronzes across 70 acres of rolling countryside. A masterclass in how sculpture and landscape work together. The 2026 season ends 25 October. **Yorkshire Sculpture Park**, near Wakefield Five hundred acres of parkland, woodland and lakes, with around 100 outdoor works. Worth visiting in winter as much as summer. **Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden**, St Ives Her former studio and garden, where abstract sculpture sits among the plants and Cornish light that inspired her. An intimate lesson in getting the relationship between art and garden right. **Jupiter Artland**, near Edinburgh Charles Jencks's extraordinary sculpted landforms, woodland discoveries and contemporary installations. Now open through much of winter, too. Then go home and look at your own garden, or balcony, or front step. You may find you've already started a collection. Good design isn't always about adding. Sometimes it's about seeing what's already there. LIKE THIS? Interiors, gardens, useful ideas and things I'd genuinely want at home. The Edit lands every other Thursday. ## Questions ### Is Frieze Sculpture free? Yes. It's free and open to everyone in the English Gardens of Regent's Park, at the south end of the Broad Walk, until 1 November 2026. No ticket needed. ### Where can I see sculpture gardens outside London? Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield, the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives, Jupiter Artland near Edinburgh and Farleys House in East Sussex are all worth the journey. Yorkshire and St Ives are open all year. ### Where should I put a sculpture in a small garden? Somewhere the eye already goes: the end of a path, a gap in the planting or the view from the kitchen window. Give it a little space around it, and watch how the light falls there across a day before you commit. ### Which garden materials age well outdoors? Bronze, natural stone, terracotta and good hardwood all gain character as they weather. Painted finishes and cheap resin tend to flake or fade rather than mellow. ### Do I need to buy art to make my garden more sculptural? Not at all. A clipped evergreen, an old tree, seed heads left over winter or one beautiful pot can do the same job. It's about giving one thing room to be seen. ## Keep looking ### [![The Montecito garden | Everything But](https://www.everythingbutthekitchensink.co.uk/hs-fs/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/London%20Terraced%20Homes%20in%20Mirror%20Reflection.png?width=303&height=101&name=London%20Terraced%20Homes%20in%20Mirror%20Reflection.png) The Montecito garden Californian ease, British weather. 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