FMR Book Choice reviews Veld the Gardens and Landscapes of Patrick Watson, on Fine Music Radio, a beautiful tome, published by Penguin Random House and appropriately launched at Kirstenbosch. Veld is written by Gareth van Niekerk, photographs by Elsa Young and artworks by Heidi Fourie.
Patrick Watson is currently South Africa’s most innovative and versatile landscape architect. Known for designing extensive mega-sites, such as Sun City and an entire Indian Ocean Island, he is also the creator of exquisite small home gardens and quiet spaces for restoration such as at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. A highly sought-after designer, he has created over 200 gardens in Africa and many others elsewhere.
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He seldom works from carefully drawn plans, instead combining artistic intuition with extensive botanical knowledge and a deep concern for the conservation and restoration of nature. His projects are creative, fresh with inspiration, and often bold, and he uses mostly indigenous plants, colours, landforms and space to create visual and emotional experiences. Covering 23 gardens and landscapes, in South Africa and beyond, richly supported by exquisite photographs and specially commissioned artworks, Veld is a beautiful tribute to a remarkable talent and visionary whose work is deeply informed by nature. It recognises and celebrates the combination of knowledge, skill and instinct that make up the man, and the radical influence he has had on his profession, and the landscapes he has restored.
Jane Carruthers, environmental historian and emeritus professor at the University of South Africa has contributed a thoughtful foreword, explaining the context and offering an excellent assessment of the work of Patrick Watson as ecologist, artist, philosopher and professional. Jane stresses that Patrick is unique in the grounding of his gardens in ecological diversity, nature and his own artistic intuition. His work, whether in big or small spaces, blends the client’s brief and his own unique style. As Carruthers notes each garden is there is no identifiable “Watson Style”.
Author Gareth van Niekerk gives an excellent overview of Watson and his ability to have the vision of what you will see in the future. Each garden is a work in progress .
Gareth van Niekerk has been arranged the book in three sections. There are 23 chapters on the selected gardens, with splendid full colour photographs by Elsa Young that reflect each garden at a particular time and place, . There is a biographical section on Watson and his own garden. There is also a more technical section for the real gardeners of the plant lists for seven gardens and this section is enlivened by the pages of artworks by Heidi Fourie.
You need to pick up a copy of Veld the Gardens and Landscapes of Patrick Watson to appreciate this handsome publication featured on FMR Book Choice.
WHAT: FMR Book Choice: Veld the Gardens and Landscapes of Patrick Watson by Gareth van Niekerk
PUBLISHERS: Penguin Random House South Africa
INFO: VISIT | see also Cape Town Green Map
