Shirley Watts is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Ancien Eleve de l’Ecole du Louvre in Paris and attended Tyler School of Art In Rome. Her work as a painter has included abstract watercolors and collages using layers of photocopied images and silk.
On returning to this country after 12 years of living and working in France and Italy, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1991 and spent 2 years working on large sculpture commissions with Scott Donahue and Mark Rogero in Emeryville CA. These projects included ‘The History of PG&E’ a ‘drive by’ concrete bas relief now located at 35th and Hollis St in Emeryville. While working on these large projects, she developed a sense of space, a love for shaping it and an understanding of the process involved in a concrete realisation of a creative vision. This experience eventually helped lead her down the path to garden design.
Moving to Alameda in 1992, to a house with a garden, she discovered the joys of digging in the dirt. She signed up for Landscape Horticulture 101 and there was no looking back. She spent four years studying various aspects of horticulture and garden design at Merritt College in Oakland. At the same time working in the field, starting at the bottom, pulling weeds, learning to do irrigation work, build dry stack rock walls, lay flagstone and brick and most importantly, develop a personal design style. This style is a mélange of her love for reusing salvaged materials, her knowledge of plant materials and her ability to bring a surprising element of contemporary culture to a garden. She applies this style to all elements of gardens from hardscape and layout, to custom furniture and lighting designs. Being licensed as a contractor by the state of California allows her to install the gardens she now creates.