Sculptor of Rock and Water
Anthony Archer-Wills works earth and water to create environments that indulge the imagination, and delight the senses.
Inspired as a schoolchild watching water well up from the ground in the woods, and influenced by Roberto Burle Marx of Brazil, who used architectural materials, curving water shapes and mass plantings on a large scale to “paint the landscape,” Anthony began designing water gardens in the 1960s.
A true pioneer and artisan, he developed new water gardening techniques while completing his first large-scale projects for Safari Parks in England, and Bear Park in Scotland. By the mid-1970s, his techniques were adopted worldwide as the industry standard for building water gardens.
Anthony has gone on to create more than 2,000 water features in Great Britain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, South America, Argentina and Turkey, as well as the United States.
He is the author of The Water Gardener, Water Power and Designing Water Gardens, which have been published in five languages.
A charismatic speaker and teacher, Anthony has lectured for the British Association of Landscape Industries, Kew Gardens, the Chelsea Physic Garden, the New York Botanic Garden as well as numerous universities, colleges and garden societies throughout the U.K. and U.S.
He has been featured on several radio broadcasts, and on BBC television. In 2008, he received the Joseph McCloskey Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Art and Craft of Watershaping, awarded by WaterShapes magazine. He frequently contributes articles to a host of periodicals, including Elle Decoration, The Four Seasons, Country Living, Gardens Illustrated, London Sunday Times Magazine, Water Garden News and Ponds magazine.
Acknowledgments
Few great works in landscape architecture can be accomplished without a great team. Anthony would like to acknowledge the huge contribution made by those who have been involved in the creation of some of the works shown in these pages.
Many thanks are extended to: