PLAY, CREATE & GIVE: Land Art

Here’s a chance to combine all 5 Ways to Wellbeing, TAKING NOTICE, BE ACTIVE, LEARNING about nature and yourself, chance to PLAY and CREATE and perhaps to leave a gift for others to enjoy too.

This is an opportunity to create a bit of ‘land art’. You may well have heard of or seen work by Andy Goldsworthy. He’s a British artist known for his site-specific installations involving natural materials and the passage of time. You might have seen leaves on a stream or a curtain of sticks carefully pinned together, perhaps ice or snow sculptures.

This is an invitation to step into his shoes as both sculptor and photographer, and to create a sculpture out of the materials around you, be they rocks, ice, leaves, or branches, then take a photo or two before nature takes over and continues the process of change. “It's not about art,” he has explained. “It's just about life and the need to understand that a lot of things in life do not last.””

As you wander the woods, focus on the objects around you. Notice sizes, shapes, colours, shades, contrasts, textures, reflections and dullness. Then collect some together and make a piece of land art that may last only hours or days. Take photos to remember and share it.

“Andy Goldsworthy is a British artist known for his site-specific installations involving natural materials and the passage of time. Working as both sculptor and photographer, Goldsworthy crafts his installations out of rocks, ice, leaves, or branches, cognizant that the landscape will change, then carefully documents the ephemeral collaborations with nature through photography.” (http://www.artnet.com/artists/andy-goldsworthy/)