I have showed you pictures of last year's sand sculptures here. This year, I came across them quite by chance when O.K. and I walked through the park last weekend (see previous post).
Not all of the sculptures meet my personal taste (and I took photos of only two sculptures), but they were all done with artistic talent and craftsmanship, something I always admire.
Have a look:
This sculpture has made 1st place in the festival. According to the information (picture below), it was made by Australian artist Kevin Crawford. He explains his sculpture as picking up on the 300th anniversary of Ludwigsburg as a town by opening up a story book at the chapter "Ludwigsburg". The buildings emerging from the pages are a (fictitious) combination of houses around the market square and the (real) palace. While I am not too fond of the little girl (?) with the huge eyes and almost non-existing nose, I love the open book and the buildings on it.
The following pictures are all of the same sculpture. They show Ludwigsburg's landmark buildings and are done so well and with much attention to detail. The sculpture was not made by one artist alone, but by most of the participating artists together. That in itself is an achievement!
I will try and show you the real building to compare with its sandy model. Above, you see the small palace by the lake, Monrepos (yes, Kay, it is the one with the hearts on the facade, as shown in my previous post). The real thing looks like this:
The church in the picture below is supposed to be the protestant church on Ludwigsburg's market square:
Not the best picture, but I think you can tell it is meant to be this building if you look at this post.
Next is, of course, the south view of Ludwigsburg's palace itself:
Compare it with the real palace:
The church in the picture below is the Catholic church on our market square. I have not found any photos of my own of it, so I am linking to the church's own website here instead of nicking their photo.
Did you love making sandcastles as a kid? I did, but mine never turned out to be as impressive as the ideas I had in my head!
The finished sculptures are sprayed with a mix of water and glue to maintain their form even if it should rain on them. Of course, they can withstand the weather (and visitors!) only for a while, but for now, they are there to be admired.
Those sand sculptures are amazing! I can't believe all the fine details the artists managed to capture.
ReplyDeleteI did like making sand castles as a kid. I remember digging moats around them which would fill with water if you were close enough to the ocean's edge. Those were good times!
I remember once playing with the children of the owners of the small pension where we were spending our summer holiday as a family. They had a sand pit in the garden and guinea pigs in the house... we built a system of tunnels and "castles" in the sand and let the guinea pigs explore everything. We children thought it was fun for them; maybe it was.
DeleteThey really are amazing, the detail is phenomenal. We have a sand sculpture festival near here (SW UK) each year and it's astonishing what can be made with sand.
ReplyDeleteI've seen sand sculptures on Majorca some years ago; they were built along the seafront promenade and the artists were charging money for photographs. They were good but honestly not as good as these.
DeleteI'm sure that I must have made simple sandcastles because I recall teaching my children how to do it using their buckets and spades. The sculptures in your photos are very impressive without a doubt.
ReplyDeleteI bet you also collected little bits of wood, pebbles and shells to decorate the sandcastles with.
DeleteI looked at them all with a sense of awe that they should stay like that and then in the last paragraph you explain - so thank you for that.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't know how they are made to last for a while, had I not observed it being done last year quite by chance.
DeleteThese sand castles are so very impressive! Wow! I really enjoyed looking at them. I've often wondered if some of the sand sculpture I've seen had glue mixed in, and now you've convinced me this is so. I didn't have much chance to build sand castles as a child, though I swam a lot - just not at a beach. But no one in our family makes more than the "normal" sort of sand castles, nothing like these.
ReplyDeleteWithout the coating, they would very soon crumble as they dry out in the wind and sun, and every drop of rain would chip away at them, too. They are cordoned off and there are polite signs asking people not to step on the sand or touch the sculptures, but you can tell by foot prints (and hands!) that not everybody is sensible enough for that.
DeleteI like all of them but both churches and the palace are the best! I love sand castles! I have never spent a great deal of time at beaches in my life, but I always want to build a sandcastle if I am near one!
ReplyDeleteHey, I wonder if the builder of the sandcastle tried to etch two hearts upon their structure? That would really impress me! :-)
Maybe they did etch hearts upon it - on the real building, they are at the back, and we could not walk around the sculpture to check out the backs of the buildings :-)
DeleteI love the first one! ♥ and am of course very impressed with the others as well. I think they're all amazing. I've never seen anything like them in real life, and I certainly never built any that advanced myself at any age :) (I never really was all that much of a "beach person", spending hours on sandy beaches in hot weather)
ReplyDeleteThey really are all amazing, no matter whether one likes the sculpture or not. Anyone who has the creativity and skill to make something like that has my respect and admiration!
DeleteSo, how the heck do they get the sand there? More importantly, how do they pick it up and get rid of it? Are they sculpted on a platform of some sort? How large was the winner? The artist did a great job of recreating the castle.
ReplyDeleteThey move the sand the same as it is moved on any building site, with machines :-) There is no platform, just a pile of sand. The winning sculpture is maybe 2 or 3 m wide, I really can't tell. When I stood in front of it, the top of the girl's head was at about my shoulder height.
DeleteI believe there are quite a few sand sculpture competitions around in other countries as well. I wonder how they are created? Wet sand?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I like them and find the work going into them admirable.
Yes, the sand is made wet first and compressed somewhat, and the work has to happen rather fast before it dries out too much, but it can't be too wet, either, or it will just slop away under the hands of the artist. It is then sprayed with a glue-water mix to fix the structure.
DeleteVery awe inspiring!! What humans can produce! I love that you came upon them by chance: Serendipity!
ReplyDeleteThere is always so much happening at the palace grounds that it is easy to lose track of all the events, and as we have season's tickets, we go there all the time anyway, regardless of what's on - quite the contrary, we rather try to avoid the big crowds on Sunday afternoons :-)
DeleteRemarkable! It's always intriguing to see miniatures. I am glad you explained how they stop the sand from crumbling away in the wind and rain. I agree with you about the book sculpture - an over-cute little girl would be a turn off for me too. I have never seen sand sculptures in real life but was intrigued by some ice sculptures I saw once in London one winter. I know it's not really the same, except for having lovely models created from quite the "wrong" medium, but somehow these pictures reminded me.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know from a sand artist if they are also comfortable to work with ice, and vice versa. In the end it is both about shaping a difficult material according to an idea in their minds or a real building etc.
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