Sand Man, Sand Dancer, Sand Art

Peter Donnelly has three or four hours between tides to produce his artwork. He's based in Christchurch, New Zealand and his canvas is the sand at the beach. He's working down on the beach, of course, and doesn't have an arial perspective of the large images he's making, but he says he's always been able to picture things in his head.

Donnelly's work echoes the philosophy of the Tibetan Buddhist monks who create sand mandalas and demonstrate the impermanence of everything. He knows that it's all temporary and does it anyway. In one video he mentions that he has created 697 works in nine years. You'll see swirls, checkerboards, teardrops, spirals, words, human forms, labyrinths and more. Zentangle enthusiasts will recognize a kindred spirit who also works dark on light, taking the lines and patterns wherever the spirit moves him, albeit on a much larger scale!

Watch a 10 minute video of Peter Donnelly and his work here.

See some still photos and another video, and read a bit more here.

Tibetan sand mandalas

If you've ever seen a real-life Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala I'm sure you were as impressed as I was. For me the truly amazing aspect is that they don't use any glue! The mandalas are large - about a meter across - and take days to construct. That's a LOT of loose sand! Don't dare bump the board it's on, or sneeze, or turn on a fan.

Photo courtesy of 'henryart' at creativecomons.org

I've had the privilege of seeing three being constructed. It's amazing to watch the monks at work. I discovered an interesting time-lapse video of one that took six days to complete. The whole thing comes together in about two minutes and the video is very interesting. One gets a much better idea of the process - and I think it's even more impressive - to stop by day after day to watch a mandala like this take shape slowly, as it must. It's interesting to be in the atmosphere of the monks' care and focused attention, although they are also friendly, smiling, and open to chat and explain. Then finally, once all that careful work is done, to watch it all being swept together.

Here's another video that's mostly sand mandalas. The sound track is by Phyllis Cole-Dai, an American pianist and composer. The music is lovely, as are the sentiments expressed, but what makes this video particularly special for me is that my painting "Whiz Bang" appears in it! It shows up near the end, just after the seven minute mark, and lasts about half a minute.

WHIZ BANG (c) 1995 Margaret Bremner; 24" square.

While mainly done in acrylic paint Whiz Bang does contain a few sections of colored sand. But I used glue! There is also a filigree gold-colored metal disk in the center. If I had to choose a dozen masterpieces of my work, this would be one of them.