Dominique le Paih, Jardin de l'harmonie / Garden of Harmony

images courtesy of Sophie Lepetit, from hetr weblog

The Garden of Harmony is an art environment that is located in Pluméliau-Bieuzy, a municipality with approximately 4,600 inhabitants (January 2023) in the center of the Morbihan region of France.

The community was formed on January 1, 2019 by the merger of the municipalities of Bieuzy and Pluméliau.

Life and works

This decorated garden has been created by Dominique le Paih, who was born in het eraly 1950s and nowadys is pensionated. 

During his working life, he was a plumber and heating engineer.

He built his house in Pluméliau-Bieuzy with his own hands and when that was finished, in his spare time he built a turret in the backyard of his house..

Subsequently, he spent three years constructing a barbecue facility, which took on the distinctive shape of a structure consisting of two towers and a surrounding wall, giving the whole thing the allure of a castle.

Apparently, occupying himself with all kinds of construction work in his spare time, pleased him so much, that in the early 1990s, when he was about forty years old, he took the direction of embellishing the garden with more artistic creations.

So without any formal artistic training, he began making all kinds of stone sculptures, as can be seen in the surrounding photos.

Working with granite from the quarries of Le Saint, near Le Faouët, the garden of Dominique le Paih acquired a special allure, which, as stated in the article on Sophie Lepetite's blog, is "a living, constantly evolving work of art, a place where nature and imagination come together to form a poetic and inspiring universe."

In addition to the large-scale creation of the barbecue, the garden features a large number of smaller creations, such as a large fish, a statue of Venus, and also a relic of the famous Brussels Manekken Pis.

Walls are decorated with Chinese figures and all kinds of animals such as owls, scorpions and dragons.

 Other creations are imitations of statues on Easter Island.

Dominique le Paih is still actively working on expanding the collection.

The site is regulalary open to visitors.

Documentation

* Article (March 14, 2026) on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

* Article (June 2025) in newspaper La Gazette

* Article (June 2025) in newspaer Ouest-France

* Article (2025) on the website Open Agenda

Dominique le Paih

Garden of Harmony

72 Rue du stade 

56310 Pluméliau-Bieuzy, dept Morbihan, region Bretagne, France

Odd Einar, Skulpturer langs en vei langs en fjord / Sculptures along a road along a fjord

this image as on Google Streetview

The scene above and the one below are part of an art environment, located near Kornstad,  a small town in the coastal area in western Norway.

The town is part of the municipality of Averøya, located on the Kornstadfjorden.

this image also as on Google Streetview

Life and works

The sculptures, situated at various locations along the road along the fjord near Kornstad, have been created by Odd Einar, assisted by his wife Monica, a couple that lives in a house near these sculptures.

Odd Einar was a teacher at a local school for 41 years and is now retired.

this image and the next four courtesy of Sophie Lepetit, .

from her weblog (see documentation)

The image above and the following four were created by Sophie Lepetit from France, who traveled through Norway with her partner and, to her surprise, came across the sculptures.

Many more images can be seen on her weblog (see documentation)..

The numerous creations along the road are made of wood, mostly tree trunks, and appear to have been shaped with a chainsaw.

They depict classical figures, such as the Viking in the very first image. 

This image also shows multiple people with colorful painting applied by Einar's partner.

But besides that, there are numerous other sculptures, mostly not painted in color, such as, to quote the article on Sophie Lepetit's weblog "reindeer with exuberant antlers, enormous bears, stately deer, a crocodile, an angel, eagles, a penguin, apples, trolls, owls......"

Although the sculptures are largely scattered throughout the area along the road, their design and appearance undoubtedly form a coherent whole.

Located along a section of the route that has a unique character due to its location along the fjords of Norway, this art environment attracts many tourists traveling along this route..

Documentation

* Article (May 16, 2026) on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

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Odd Einar

Sculptures along a road along a fjord

Village of Kornstad, Municipality of Averøy, region Møre og Romsdal, Norway

can be seen from the road

Pinuccio Sciola, Giardino Sonoro / Garden with sounding stones

all images courtesy of Sophie Lepetit, as on her weblog
see documentation

The Giardino Sonoro is a park in San Sperate, a village in southern Sardinia. 

This park can be seen as an art environment, since it contains a collection of stone structures, all made by hand by the same artist. Some of these structures have the special property of producing a musical sound when touched or struck in the right way;

Life and works

These stone structures were created by Pinuccio Sciola (1942-2016), who was born in San Sperate, where he also continued to live once he was an adult.

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He developed as an artist, got training in Madrid, Paris and Salzburg, and participated in the Venice Biennale.

Although this weblog in principle only focuses on non-professionals, it is primarily the unique musical qualities of his stone creations that provide the reason to devote attention in this blog to Sciola's work in stone,

The exception is also appropriate because he was deeply connected to his native Sardinia, and his artistic expressions were modest in nature and related to nature and to his native Sardinia.

This is also evident from the sculptural contribution he made from the 1960s onwards to the Giardino Sonore, a park that was the first in Sardinia to acquire an artistic character.

In 1968 Sciola was in Paris when the student uprising began, which spread to large parts of the population. 

He was struck by the power and creativity of the events, and once back in San Sperate, he wanted to give his hometown the appearance of a museum city by painting walls with white lime and inviting artists to create murals on them. 

He referred to those years as the Lime Years.

In 1996 Sciola began researching how sculptures might produce  sounds. 

So he selected primarily large pieces of basalt and volcanic stone.which are porous and in which a variety of grooves can be carved. These stones, thus processed, can produce special sounds upon touch.

 

The first musical stone that Sciola demonstrated in public was named Jazz Stone and was played at a jazz festival together with a trumpeter and a percussionist..

Pinuccio Sciola died on May 13, 2016. 

Residents of San Sperate hung white sheets and curtains in front of their windows and balconies in his memory.

 Documentation

* .Article (May 2026) on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

* Article (September 2025) on newspaper Vanity Fair

* Article on Wikipedia

Video

* Video  (published January 2019) with Sciola playing stones and scenes of the garden

Pinuccio Sciola

Garden with sounding stones

San Sperate, Sardinia, Italy 

the public garden with sculptures can be visited freely

Guido Zuliani, Jardin de sculptures / Sculpture garden

images published here in agreement with 
Thierry de Baillon, weblog Tipeek Photos

Ligny-Thilloy is a municipality with over 500 inhabitants (2023 census), located in the department of Pas-de-Calais in the Hauts-de-France region in the northwest of France.

Along the Rue de Miraumont lies a house with a street-facing front garden that is decorated with a number of creations, as can be seen in the image above.

Life and works

These creations were made by Guido Zuliani, who was born in Italy in December 1919 and migrated to France, where he worked as a bricklayer.

As the image at the very top shows, the garden does not include a large number of creations This is also becaue over the years some have been stolen or given away to feature in other gardens

Zuliani passed away in September 1996 and since then the artworks are maintained and regularly repainted by Zuliani's daughter, who does so with attention and love.

Some details of the creations in this site. 

The second image from the top shows a monkey riding an elephant.

The garden features a number of columns of twisted bricks, and a stork is situated on one of those columns, as can be seen in the image above left.

The image to the right of the stork shows a man walking around with a pot of succulents.

The image below shows an animal that looks like a large salamander.

Documentation

* Article (April 2026) by Thierry de Baillon, website Tipeek Photos

* Article (May 2012) by Larent Jacquy on his website Les beaux dimanches

Guido Zuliani

Sculpture garden

16 rue de Micaumont

62450 Ligny-Thailloy, dept Pas-de-Calais, region Hauts-de-France, France

can be seen from the street

Fernand Garanto, Jardin de sculptures / Sculpture garden

all images courtesy of Donminque Clement

The garden with sculptures reviewed in the following article is located in Limoux, a municipality with approximately 10,500 inhabitants in the Aude department in the Occitanie region of France.

Lifen and works

The sculptures are creations made by Fernand Garanto, who was born iin Limoux in the late 1940s.

His career was initially quite remarkable, for when he was only sixteen years old, he became a professional stuntman, part of one of the biggest teams in France at the time.

He would be active there for a long time, but after twenty years and many broken bones, he had to quit.

His next job, which he started in the mid-1980s, was much more subdued, as he became a civil servant at the municipality of Limoux. Although that was a much quieter environment, he could still occasionally express himself as a boisterous character, especially during Carnival.

And as a self-taught artist, he also developed a passion for creating sculptures.

By then he was married, and the couple lived outside the center of Limoux in a house with a garden of about 3,000 square meters, which,certainly after his retirement around 2014,  began to be filled with his creations, as in part can be seen in part in the surrounding images.

They show sculptures made of terracotta, plaster, and white cement with marble dust.

Garanto's  studio is completely filled with all kinds of sculptures and he gladly accepts requests from friends to create sculptures displaying specific types of people.

As a self-taught artist, he is sometimes amazed by what comes from his hands, such as his ability to capture certain gestures in his creations.

He has also established himself as a writer by now, like in March 2024, he published a book entitled Entre Action et Passion: mémoires d'un cascadeur professionnel (Between Action and Passion: Memoirs of a Professional Stuntman), that reveals the secrets of the techniques and methods stunt performers use to achieve breathtaking feats safely.

Documentation

* Garanto on Facebook

* Article (Januarfy 2019) in French newspaper l'Indepandant

* Article  (October 2024) in French newspepr Le Petit Journal

Video

On YouTube Fernand Garanto has a collection of some eight short videos that give an impression of the kind of creations he makes.

* Here is a video (3.03 minutes) from this collection, made in 2018 at the occasion of the Carnaval de Limoux

Fernand Garanto 

Sculpture Garden

17 Chemin de la Serre de Cournanel 

11300 Limoux, dept Aude, region Occitanie, France

Mulas Suyuno, Esterno decorato / Decorated exterior

this image and the next eight courtesy of Sophie Lepetit

Sant'Antioco is a municipality with around 10,500 inhabitants located on a small island of the same name, southwest of Sardinia, which in turn is an island that is part of Italy.

The house pictured above is located in Sant'Ántioco along a street named Via Caralis, and as the image above shows, at first glance it appears to be an ordinary, average home.

However, those who look a little more closely will be surprised to see a small collection of sculptures next to the stairs leading to the front door..

On a plaque on the front of the house, there is not only the house number 19, but also a name reading Mulas Suyuno. 

The surname Suyuno does appear on the internet, especially in Eastern environments, but searching for that surname including the first name does not yield results on the internet.

This being the case, further substantive explanations remain limited to a few general observations. 

It can be observed, for instance, that creative expressions are visible on the walls of the house, which, as shown in the image above and the the three images below, largely have a one-dimensional character.

However, there are also several three-dimensional creations, such as the head with a beard below.

 

And there is another sculpture of a male figure amidst a number of consoles, as can be seen below.

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Documentation

*  The only source dealing with this art environmente is the weblog of Sophie Lepetit 

Mulas Suyuno

Decorated exterior

19 Via Caralis 

Sant’Antioco, Sardinia, Italy

Collective of artists, Sanginkontu taide polut lähellä Oulua / Sanginkontu art trails near Oulu, Finland

location of some of the art trails

In the year 2026 Oulu, a municipality with about 210,000 inhabitants, located in the north-west of Finland at the mouth of the river of the same name, is featured as one of Europe's cultural capitals.

A few years ago, ideas were expressed regarding how to give shape to this. 

The Finnish Association for Rural Culture, approached by residents of Oulu also became involved, and thus a project was developed focused on decorating walking paths with handmade artistic creations.

This post reviews the twelve creations along the trails.

1. Pet cemetery

this image and the next eleven published here in agreement
with MSL, the Finnish Association for Rural Culture

Felicia Honkasalo's contribution is an audio work related to the animal cemetery in a forest. 

Sitting on a bench by the animal cemetery, one can listen to an exposition via headphones, such as the question of why some animals have a name and a place in the forest, while others are completely forgotten.

2.  River Dragon

The wooden creation, now named River Dragon, was found in a nearby forest by children from a school in Sanginsuu.

it was a sculpture originally made by an artist who works with a chainsaw. 

The find was repainted by the children in 2023 and named River Dragon, was given a spot atop a piece of rock in the nearby forest.

3. Longing

Above creation by Pia Hentunen's concerns the longing for deceased pets, which can play an important role in people's lives.

This longing is depicted in the creation made in 2025 primarily from stainless steel.

4. The large cone

The creation Jesse Kitinoja made in collaboration with his uncle Macu Makkonen, is a large cylindrical structure composed of approximately 1,200 large, hand-carved wooden scales from a maple tree. 

It is an artwork that, when displayed outdoors, will develop a beautiful silver-gray patina over time.

5. Spirit of the forest

François Blosseville's creation, named Spirit of the Forest, combines the artist's work with the forest environment and developments in nature. 

The trees have risen in the forest and, by falling, have become sculptures that will eventually decay in the place where they were born.

6. The rapids pilot

The idea for above creation by Jussi Ruusulampi came from the history of Oulu, from times when tar boats were transported by the Oulu River to the seaside.

It was a difficult and dangerous ride via rapids. He made a huge sculpture depicting a local riverman piloting his tar boat through the rapids

7.The fkow of time

The creation The Flow of Time by Tuomas Mujunen and Kati Leinonen, currently still in preparation, will be placed along the Oulu River at the boat landing in Sanginsuu.

8. Pavillion of the crane's flight

The creation named Pavilion of the Crane's Flight, crafted in 2025 by Eero Markuksela, is situated on a wooded slope overlooking the Oulujoki River. 

Visitors can sit quietly inside and enjoy the landscape and the river.

9. The picture stone

Kai Ruohonen made the creation named Picture Stone in collaboration with local residents, who provided suggestions from which the artist crafted the tribal sign of the Lapinkangas. 

This sign expresses what the tar rowers experienced while sailing on the Oulu River.

10, The seating stone

The wooden stools, created by Aimo Laitinen, offer visitors a seat to watch a video made by Satu Pietilä, which tells the story connected to the Seating Stone.

That is a large boulder that ended up at its current location during the Ice Age.

11. Old Barn

The image above shows a barn that in earlier years housed the forest ranger and has now been renovated by volunteers thanks to the efforts of artist Satu Suvanto. 

She began using the barn as a workspace and also organized art workshops in the barn for local residents.  

The barn became adorned with 84 flower petals descending from the ceiling, as well as artworks showcasing details of the surrounding nature.

12. Long live Sanginjoki

In a picturesque spot stands a bench topped with an information board depicting the rich history and daily life of the nearby village of Sanginjoki, compiled by Satu Pietilä, Karita Heikkinen and Riitta Johanna Laitinen, and based on memories of villagers.

The bench was crafted by Kari Viinikangas, an artist who works with a chainsaw.

The size of the trails varies.

The longest art trail comprises six creations (numbers 1 through 6), followed by a trail of three (numbers 10 through 12), a trail of two (numbers 7 and 8), and there is a standalone creation (number 9).

Documentation

* In addition to the sources referred to in the reviews above, see also this website of the Association for Rural Culture

* More information about the art trails can also be found on the internet via this search query.

Sanginkontu Art Trails near Oulu, region North Ostrobothnia, Finland