That's Pen-y-ghent in the background. One of the Yorkshire three peaks.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Square Snow Sun Window
This was the first snow sculpture I made when I arrived at this spot. I used what I learnt making this one, the texture and quality of the snow to improve the result of the three tier sculpture.
Snow Scrapers
I made the grass sculpture when I first arrived as I didn't think the snow was any good. I took another look at it when I finished the snow sculptures and thought I would add some snow towers to finish it off.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Maple Ice Leaf Disc
The temperatures plunged even further last night, it reached -4 C at home and -5 low on the fells, which is reasonably uncommon for this area.
For Mother Nature to provide me with some different materials to play with left me really inspired and ice, snow and frost are the very definition of ephemeral. So my two favourites things - interesting natural materials and ephemeral sculpture - sent me to bed with the hope that the sun would shine as ice comes alive when hit by low winter sun.
JRTPickle and I had been discussing new ideas and she has come up with some crackers recently (not Christmas ones) so thanks to her for the new ideas and the inspiration.
I prepared these sculptures yesterday so that they would freeze and be ready for the morning. I dashed up to the moors early as low night time temperatures are often followed by melt-warm daytime conditions. I would need to be quick to catch the dawn sun, grab a picture or two before things melted.
This turned out not to be the case. Temperatures stayed low and were low enough to stick ice to ice which broadened the possibilities. When I have tried before it has been too warm to do this.
So I constructed each sculpture using spit to weld them together and positioned them to wait for the sun to peep over the ridge. I knew that cloud was expected by lunchtime and poor weather by the evening so I crossed my fingers the sun would appear.
High level clouded blocked the sun and I waited and waited. She came out for a few seconds and I managed a couple of shots but then the cloud spread even more and the sun was gone again. Instead I concentrated on no-sun pictures as my hopes faded that I wouldn't be in luck to get the ice-shine pictures I craved.
I waited and waited some more and was tempted to pack up and go home. I feared the cloud was already here and set in and I would just be wasting my time.
I was wrong, the sun finally burnt through and I hurried to take pictures before she went in again. And that she did but not before I got what I wanted.
Heavy snow is predicted for this evening and tomorrow. I wonder if there will be lots and will it stay long enough for me to play with? Only Mother Nature can decide.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Ice Diamond Stack
Last night I sat excitedly on the couch with my eyes glued to the thermometer and the outside temperature. It was the first time that it had registered a negative value since last Winter.
First thing this morning I headed to the place where I built the Snow Ice Cairn in the hope that there would be some ice. It was very cold but there wasn't any usable ice there.
Instead I went to the little pool where I made these and the ice there was good. I chopped out some sections and searched for a place to stack them.
The slabs of ice weren't perfectly flat and slid about a bit and I needed to handle them with gloves off for dexterity. The first attempt fell over pretty quickly as you can see in this timelapse sequence and it also took on a major lean which I didn't notice until I reviewed the pictures.
I wanted to build it really wide in the middle as you can see from the other attempts below but each time it toppled the longer ones broke so I couldn't make it as wide as I wanted.
The temperature hovered around freezing and so any liquid on their surfaces from the heat of my hands meant that the smallest pieces would slide which made it all the more difficult as the smallest was at the bottom. But I persevered and this was the result.
I left it there in the hope that it would freeze together but when I went to check this evening it had toppled. But I was surprised to find the 3 Sun Wheels still there from last week with only two leaf sections missing.
Oh and I've updated the LandArtForKids.com site with some new 'How to's'.
LandArtforKids.com
Diamond Ice Stack Attempt 1 Timelapse, originally uploaded by ...escher....
I had trouble shoring this one up but it wasn't until I saw the pictures on my PC that I saw how much it started tilting as I was trying to finish it off.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
2nd Night Frosted 4 Colour Sun Wheels
After the rapid melting of the frost on the sun wheels yesterday I left them overnight again in a frost pocket hoping that the night would be cold.
When we returned they were indeed frosty again so I set up my camera to film a timelapse of the frost melting. In the space of an hour the warmer-than-the-ground air had melted all the frost completely.
On the way back I took them with me and placed them next to the path in the hope that they would brighten someone's afternoon.
The rest of the time we made kid's land art so we can update the LandArtforKids.com site and blog in the next couple of days with new activities and games for Winter.
Frost Melting Timelapse
Frost Melting Timelapse, originally uploaded by ...escher....
This is a timelapse film of the frost melting from the Frosted 4 Colour Sun Wheels after two nights of leaving them out in the cold.
After filming the melting frost timelapse I moved them to a spot by the path at Birk Bank, Clougha and arranged them so they would catch the afternoon sun. I hope that passing walkers may chance upon them.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Frosty 4 Colour Sun Wheels
No not a super-sweet kiddies breakfast cereal but a reprise of the 4 Colour Sun Wheel I made in Spring earlier this year.
As a follow up to the 'leaves and light' series that I was following then, which was all about finding out whether Autumn colours were present in Spring and Summer, I am now starting a colours of Winter theme. I realise that Winter doesn't officially start until 21st of December and there are still deciduous leaves hanging onto some trees but the short days and frosty mornings, blue skies and golden light equal the best of Winter for me regardless of the calendar date.
But despite it being the tail end of Autumn these leaves are not Autumn leaves. Each was taken from evergreen shrubs, the same as I did in Spring. So it is clear to me now that it is possible to make these wheels at any time of the year.
I spent yesterday making the wheels but by the time I had finished the light had already turned golden and faded shortly after and I missed the opportunity to get a photograph.
So instead, after dark we headed onto the moors and looked for a sheltered spot to arrange them so they would hopefully become frosted over during the night. I was also hoping that the next day I could sit and watch the frost gradually melt off them as the sun rose and struck their frames.
But before that we would have to make it back to the car in the dark. There was just enough light to see, but for some reason the path back (despite being the same path but in reverse) was much trickier to negotiate than on the way out. Someone had placed odd shaped rocks all along the way, that tripped us and weren't there on the way out and I can tell you it isn't much fun walking into a gorse bush in the dark, although I obviously needed convicing of that fact as I repeated the experience several times.
My first thought as I woke up this morning was what the temperature was and how frosty the wheels will look. It was 1 c and so I raced out the door as quickly as I could.
When I found them they weren't as frosted up as I hoped but then the frost wasn't as heavy anywhere as it was yesterday. I took some shots of them where they were then headed off to find a spot where the dawn light would strike them. Despite the ground being hard and frosted, the air was not as cold. Within minutes of setting off walking the frost began to melt from the wheels and it was all gone after a few short minutes. So I set them up on a patch of frost and waited for the sun to appear.
Once I was done I looked for a really cold frost pocket and once more placed them out ready for tonights frost. The UV of the sun had faded the yellow and as ever the sculpture's appearance changed with time, just as everything does, the only key factor is how quickly or slowly things change, but as sure as sure everything changes whether we are aware of it or not.
The time I spent out this morning tuned me in to the temperature of the ground and the different temperature of the air. The low arc that the sun follows and the places where the sun hits at different times and the other places where the sun doesn't hit again until Spring. Although I made the sculptures yesterday and just photographed them today they still gave me the opportunity to experience the changes and cycles of a crisp winters day, the fluctuations and eddies and transitions that one might miss if you did not spend the time to study so closely.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Blurb reduces prices for Christmas
Blurb have just sent me an email that says:-
"...you have books in the Blurb Bookstore that might make great holiday gifts. Get the word out to your network — we'll even give them $10/£6/€8/AUD $12 off any books you've made with a value of $29.95/£16.95/€24.95/AUD $39.95 or more..."
So you can get 'Land Art' or 'Wheel of Life' softcover or hardcover for cheaper than you could before, so if you're still looking for that elusive but special ;-) Christmas present then look no further! ;-)
Orders from the US (using US $): GREATGIFT
Orders from UK (using UK £): GREATGIFT2
Orders from EU (using EU €): GREATGIFT3
Orders from AU (using AUD $): GREATGIFT4"
Friday, December 04, 2009
Framed Wave
I should sub title this one "Hunt for Orange Stick." It's not quite as exciting as "Hunt for Red October" and doesn't involve submarines but I wouldn't be surprised if someone made a Hollywood movie out of it.
I've not done any beach art for a while and when I woke up this morning I immediately thought "head to the coast."
The tide was due in at 12.15 and darkness and bad weather due later at 4.00pm so time was going to be short.
We arrived at 11.50, according to the clock in the car, so I expected the tide to be going out just as we got set up.
I fancied doing a sculpture similar to this but with the tide up I didn't have access to the sand. I collected rocks and started assembling them on a flat slab while I waited for the tide to recede.
But the thing was it didn't, it carried on getting higher and higher.
A 10 watt bulb lit up in my head - I still hadn't reset the clock in the car since the end of British summertime and there would be another hour before the tide would head back!
So I thought I would have to change tack and build it on the slab instead of in the sand and hope that the tide would reveal the sand in time to fill the centre and leave enough light for a photo.
But it is often the case that what you expect to be easy turns out to be the hard bit, the frame came together reasonably quickly so I set off to comb the beach for suitable driftwood to make the framed tree. I looked and looked and looked and not a single piece of wood was shapely enough and I was reminded of how I built the original and how it was all based around the stick I found to go into the centre.
After spending a long time looking I had noticed how the driftwood was lots of different colours. Black, brown, white, green and orange - so I changed tack and thought I would show off the different colours I had found.
I started from the bottom and worked my way up and everything seemed to be going well until I got to the very last stick needed to finish it. It needed to be quite long and orange and so the "Hunt for the Orange Stick" begun.
I swear to god there was only one vaguely orange stick that was long enough and it took me hours to find it and whats more it was bent!
I gently tried to straighten it out and the obvious thing happened, it snapped! Curses!
I looked again but there were no more damn orange sticks on that beach! I don't even like bloody orange anyway!
Unhappily I placed the snapped stick at the top and knew that it would have to do and I had learnt more about orange sticks than I ever wanted to know.
Land art lessons learnt today? Don't use orange sticks.
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