"Terra Verte" Exhibition Transforms Nature into Art

Artist Patricia Leighton grew up primed to appreciate the wonders of the natural environment, a quality highlighted in her exhibition "Terra Verte," on display in the Georgia Museum of Art's Jane and Harry Willson Sculpture Garden until May 2015.

Her interest and attachment to the natural environment are indelibly present in her sculptures. "Terra Verte" consists of six steel-framework cubes raised above the ground and filled with plants that transmute in color and texture over time, contrasting the starkly stagnant mechanical with the vibrantly evolving natural.

Leighton explains, "Having grown up surrounded by Scottish hills and mountains of ever-changing color, texture and light; having traveled Britain and Europe viewing ancient sacred sites like the Ring of Brogar in Orkney or Hagar Qim in Malta, I have experienced first-hand a sense of timelessness and hidden mysteries. I seek to capture this sense of presence in my work and the intrinsic echoes of the landscape.”

Leighton's sculptures, which are created with a supporting team of ecologists, engineers, architects and landscape architects, have been installed around the world in places such as Scotland, England, South Korea, Bulgaria and New York City. Her husband, Del Geist, is also an artist, and his sculpture "Stone Levity" is installed in front of the Performing Arts Center in the quad during the same period that "Terra Verte" will be on display.

The Georgia Museum of Art will be hosting a lecture by Leighton on Sept. 25 entitled "Art and Place" at 5:30 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public.