I hope you've read the 3/19 posts. If not, scroll down and read them. And then, this is the rest of the story.



I'm remembering that Anna liked to work from live models, as I look at this.



These are



all examples



of her work.



Bears and horses and big cats and...





After I posted the Conway entry, someone asked about Live Oaks (Quercus virginiana). It is the name of the tree, not just a description.



They're beautiful spreading trees, often festooned with Spanish Moss.



At Brookgreen, they're planted in an allee, 2 parallel rows leading to the Diana Pool.







There is so much more to see there than what I saw


and so many trails to walk beyond the butterfly garden.


Plenty of interest - Pan,


Diana,



St. Francis,



Native Americans



For more information, the Brookgreen Gardens website is http://www.brookgreen.org/

I actually don't know where to start! I took all the pictures my camera battery would allow. But YOU should start at the Atalaya post, which is the one below this, if you haven't read it yet. It will tell you about the people who founded this park and sculpture garden.



Brookgreen Gardens is one of the most beautiful places I've seen, with its mixture of art, landscaping and nature. I only had time to see the sculpture gardens, but there's lots more there. We'll leave it for a future blog.



Anna carved this symbolic statue of herself and Archer.



These children saying the Pledge of Alliegance are the first sculpture I encountered.



Further down the path, a gentleman sits on a bench, reading his newspaper.



Things get more esoteric further into the gardens.

Circle of Life
Harold "Tuck" Langland
Using the metaphor of dance, this group of four figures represents the cycles of human life, four seasons, four elements, and four directions. Each figure has an accompanying poem written by the sculptor.

The dancing figures of the four directions, in the Circle of Life, tell you you just might be entering sacred space.

Creation
She is the east where dawn brings the new day
She is spring when the land bursts into bloom
She is water, the cradle of life

Being
He is the south with the sun high in the day
He is summer with growth abundant
He is air and the breath of life

Transformation
He is the west where the sun descends blazing
He is the autumn when living things look to their rest
He is transforming fire

Dormancy
She is the north that waits in darkness
She is winter when all is still
She is earth listening for spring rain

And then there is The Diana Pool







Home to some truly large goldfish!



Pegasus



And Dionysus.

Stay tuned for more. Next time I'm online I will post some truly awesome Live Oaks, more sculptures, including a group of Anna's, and futher adventures.

Archer and Anna Huntington came to Murrells Inlet during the depression years. He was a wealthy industrialist philanthropist. She was a sculptress. They purchased a huge expanse of land for a winter home and nature preserve. This is now Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens.



Early snowbirds, they came south from New York each year in their motorhome, shown in this picture.



The house they built was inspired by moorish architecture and named Atalaya, watchtower. From the outside, it rather resembles a factory or prison - but looks are deceiving.


The house is built around a beautiful courtyard featuring a tower - which held their water storage tank -



and bisected by a walkway from the front entrance to the main living rooms along the beach side.



I've always thought if houses don't have wheels, they should have interior courtyards and shorelines, so I loved this one.



The Huntington's front yard, of course,



is the windswept beach.



Anna Huntington was one fantastic artist. Examples of her work - and others - can be seen across Route 17 at Brookgreen Gardens (next blog entry). This is her indoor studio.


Anna liked to work from live models, so the house which was her workspace included pens for the bears and big cats who modeled for her, and an outdoor studio where she must have done this sort of work.



This is one of the bedrooms. All the walls are down to bare brick now, so use your imagination as I did mine to see what it was like when they lived here.



And another - I think it was one of the kitchen rooms.



At the end of the courtyard away from the beach, the allee leads to Rt. 17 and Brookgreen Gardens.

Myrtle Beach State Park was my weekend rest stop.





It happened to be the last weekend of the winter for riding horses on the beach,




so a bunch of equestrians came out.





I had squirrels at my campsite. Some were willing to pose for pictures.



This little guy was waiting for me Sunday morning when I came out of the rig.