Sand Sculpture at Fort Meyers Beach
I attended the American Sandsculpting Championship at Fort Meyers Beach and was really blown away by the works. I had expected some nice sand castles with flourishes. But what I got were sculptures taller than me that often looked like stone and seemed impossible to execute in sand.
The rules are that the artists are allowed only sand, water, and tools to build the works. So no internal framework, no supporting members, and no glue (though I understand they are sprayed with a diluted glue mixture AFTER completion to hold them against the elements for viewing and judging).
Turns out that Fort Meyers Beach is one of the premier location for sand sculpting. Many beaches have sand which is composed of coarse roundish grains. Much of the sand on the Florida West Coast is very fine and powdery which is easy to see. What’s not so obvious is that the grains are more angular and this combined with the small size makes the sand much more cohesive and perfect for building and sculpting.
Official Site: http://sandsculptingfestival.com/
More of my pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/asantaballa/sets/72157625881886039/show/
–Al-
Amazing! I checked out the rest of the photos on Flickr, too. A bit eccentric, but, hey, that’s Florida. I hope that their talent gets put to more permanent uses. So who WON?
That’s a lovely representation of a statuette through the medium of sand. I recently saw the Tim Burtonesque Creepy Crawlies sand sculpture exhibition in Frankston, Melbourne which is awesome. Your sand seems whiter though. The sculptures here are so desert yellow it looks like Egypt in OZ!