Last Saturday’s midday sun, high over the tall grass of the Blakely Harbor Park meadow, was warm enough to inspire thoughts of a snooze.

But for the half-dozen local and Seattle artists purposefully striding the site of the former Port Blakely mill, siesta was less at issue than sculpture.

The group surveyed the meadow and immediate surroundings for possible spots to create “installation art” – work made for, and in response to, a specific location.

Leading the tour was Carolyn Law, the noted Seattle artist chosen to curate a temporary art exhibit at the site, “Art in the Meadow: a Whispered Conversation,” slated to open with the Bainbridge In Bloom garden tour July 12-13.

“My thought is to have the artworks be about that site, to be really well-grounded in the site,” Law said. “It is, in fact, a chance to have a conversation with the site.”

Located at the head of Blakely Harbor, the park wraps around a man-made “log pond” that was a holding pen for big timbers floated from all over the Northwest.

Work by six to 10 artists will be presented in two of the park’s 38 acres – a meadow bordered by two streams and a strip of woods at the intersection of Blakely Road NE and Country Club Road.

The site of seasonal Suquamish encampments and then home to the world’s largest lumber mill – and the multi-national workforce that ran it – the place has been partly reclaimed by nature.

Those natural processes and the industrial and cultural history of the place, will be the inspiration for Bainbridge’s first-ever temporary outdoor art installations.

Installation art, often made of non-permanent materials, allows the artist flexibility and spontaneity. “It’s refreshing,” island sculptor Gregory Glynn said. “You don’t see much of that here.”

Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council and its Public Art Committee conceived the art installations a year and a half ago.

“The genesis of the project was to present something in a transient way that people would come across and be surprised at,” said the committee co-coordinator, Kent Scott.

“All art has ‘story’ in it. This is a venue for offering a story of place.”

Law hopes to link the works thematically, defining a collective vision.

Placement of art will respect birds and other wildlife that inhabit the area, with environmentally sensitive portions of the site, such as the salmon stream, off-limits to art and foot traffic.

“We are also trying to minimize impact on the meadow,” Law said, “to keep the footprint as light as possible. There are natural barriers that will determine how people will move by the site.”

Some barriers, such as the site’s ubiquitous blackberry bushes and other invasive species, may be turned into art, Law says, with pathways and spaces created.

Other works may address the park’s cultural history.

The park district and the city have welcomed the exhibit as an opportunity of introducing the community to the new park, which the district acquired from the Port Blakely Tree Farms in 1999 and 2001, with help from the Bainbridge Island Land Trust.

A five-year plan for the park includes cultural and historical displays, salt marsh restoration, access for non-motorized watercraft, a picnic area and a trail system. The first trails, linking IslandWood property, privately held land and the park, will be completed this summer.

Park District Planner Perry Barrett expects that the art exhibit will increase the public’s awareness of the park’s diverse ecosystems.

“A lot of people think it’s just the shoreline,” Barrett said.

The artists will be selected by early June, and installation completed by the end of that month.

“This is a fabulous chance to connect something directly to a place without a year of public art process,” Law said. “It’s really a site with an incredible amount of promise.”

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“Art in the Meadow: A Whispered Conversation” opens with the 2003 Bainbridge in Bloom Garden Tour July 12-13 as a free venue through September.

BIAHC invites regional artists to participate. For a prospectus, contact Carolyn Law at 612-2182 or maxlaw@attbi.com. The deadline to apply is May 31. Information: 842-7901 or www.artshum.org.