Hermitage in Santa Barbara: A private show

High in the hills of Santa Barbara lies the Hermitage, the private whimsy of Theodore Roosevelt Gardner II. If you are lucky enough to be invited to the 18-acre property, and few are, you will find 5-foot-high stone toes popping out of a hillside, a bronze female swimmer stretching her shoulders near a half-submerged flying saucer, and an austere samurai robot called “The Warrior” made out of chrome car bumpers. In a sunken hole, 16 clay lawn jockeys stand in rows, deliberately evoking the terra cotta army that guards the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of China.

Some of Gardner’s sculpture is sentimental: A round-faced mother holds her young daughter by a field of flowers. Others play to Gardner’s sense of humor. One piece called “Mount Mushroar” is a scaled-down reproduction of the national memorial with Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman sitting in for Thomas Jefferson. These pieces were purchased, but Gardner began dabbling in bronze about 10 years ago, and now many of the sculptures on the property are his own designs.

Gardner was director of the South Coast Choral Society when he used to live in Rancho Palos Verdes. Now he is a writer, the owner of a property management company and a frequent joke maker. He and his wife bought the Hermitage in 1987 and moved there full time in 1990. They have opened their home and grounds to the public only once — for a diabetes benefit in 2000 that raised $15,000. “We were very pleased until we realized that’s how much it cost to put it on,” he said. “I thought, next time I’ll just write a check.”

A botanic garden once thrived on the property, but many of the plants were destroyed in the Tea fire of 2008 along with the house, a swimming pavilion and 90% of the wood sculptures. On a recent tour, which Gardner gave wearing a green polo shirt with a Hermitage emblem embroidered on the chest, he said many of the plants had come back. But he has not yet rebuilt the house, which will look like an amoeba, he said, and the concrete had just been poured for another structure he is calling “the musuem,” to be shaped like a disheveled stack of books. For the past two years he has lived in a nearby house rented for him by his insurance company.

Gardner refers to himself as a hermit and has generally managed to keep his eclectic sculpture garden a secret in this community of art collectors. When pressed on how much he has invested in his personal outdoor gallery, his wry reply is, “$5 billion, give or take.” The curious are simply left hunting for answers in the photo book that he recently put together, “The Hermitage Santa Barbara at 20.”

Why would anyone self-publish a book about the place he keeps hidden from the public? “You have quickly put your finger on the paradox,” Gardner said. “Why should I do a book when what I want above all is privacy? Is it too late to recall it? I expect it is.”

deborah.netburn@latimes.com