Sculpture and gardens are a perfect match, and this year’s sculpture show at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens “On the Wing” is also a perfect match for the Botanical Gardens’ “Feathers and Foliage” theme for 2012.

The exhibit, curated by June LaCombe of Pownal, opens on Sunday, July 1, with a reception from 5-7 p.m. that’s free and open to the public. The show will be at the Botanical Gardens until Sept. 30.

For this show, birds, feathers, nests and other creatures with wings, both abstracted and representational, are depicted in stone, steel, wood and bronze. The works on view will be for sale, with proceeds benefiting the Botanical Gardens.

This is a two-part show. In addition to the exterior sculpture sited in the perennial gardens and along woodland trails at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, interior work and smaller garden-scale pieces will be shown in the lobby and butterfly gardens at Maine Audubon in Falmouth, with sales there benefiting that organization.

LaCombe has selected sculpture from more than 50 artists’ studios throughout New England. Among the artists are Lise Becu, Ray Carbone, Jim Sardonis, Andreas von Huene, Cabot Lyford, Hank Tyler, Jean Noon and George Sherwood.

“Birds hold a mythic place in our imaginations,” LaCombe said. “With transcendent flight, iridescent splendor, migratory genius and melodic song, they are the jewels of nature throughout the world.”