Sri Lanka – The Brief Garden
The Brief is a remarkable garden of great style, charm and peace, set in the hills behind the town of Bentota on the south-west coast of Sri Lanka. It was created by Bevis Bawa, a celebrated artist and garden designer, and the brother of Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka’s greatest architect.
Somerset Maugham described the Brief as a series of rambling courtyards, patios, loggias and terraces filled with furniture both old and new, indigenous and exotic — all blending together to make it one of the loveliest houses in the East. Of the garden itself he wrote that its harmony comes from being, as Bevis explained it, several small gardens thought out in various moods over forty years of growth — a climax of loveliness, a proclamation that nature can triumph over the hideous inventions of mankind.
The unusual name is often attributed to a successful court case won by Bevis’s father, which financed the original estate. Bevis himself offered a different explanation: a novelist he admired had named three country mansions Vantage, Usage and Brief. The first sounded as if he had taken advantage. Usage sounded awfully like a brothel. So therefore, it had to be Brief, and still is.
The photographs here were taken in November 2025 on the OM-3 with the Lumix G Vario 14–140mm f/3.5–5.6 lens. The light beneath the dense canopy is challenging — slow shutters and careful handheld technique throughout.
Photographs in this album include: a Flaming Torch bromeliad, Parrot’s Beak or Parakeet Flower, Sanchezia speciosa, lush jungle pathways, tropical colour, and the quiet courtyards and terraces of the estate.
For camera settings, techniques and equipment used in shoots like this, see the Technique posts on mcaughtry.photo.