MARILYN CORNWELL: crops

So many ways to make art these days. But then Simon Beck has been creating outdoor art in the snow since 2004. Vast patterns in the snow in various mountainous areas - he lives in the French Alps.The article I read had him in the U.S. Rocky Mountains creating winter art for the town of Silverthorne.

"Days into his Silverthorne stint, Beck has only finished a couple of “drawings,” as he calls them. The wind has thus far wiped away everything he started, and on some days has even prevented him from going out altogether. But that’s the nature of the job, and he’s used to it." That article is HERE - with its wonderful pictures of is work.

Another kind of art by foot is made by Stan Herd. He is an American crop artist whose work is carved on the landscape as well as on fine art prints. He received a lot of press last year with a crop portrait of Kama Harris. His work is made from native plants and other natural materials. His Young Woman of China contained marble, granite and the province’s natural stone. It also incorporates dirt, plants, rice paddies and other materials native to the region. I wonder how long these last.

And then there are corn maze designers. Dan Frantz is one of these. The Amazing Maize Maze 2019 locations are listed with pictures HERE. There don't seem to be any updates anywhere since then - there are many in the eastern U.S., and mostly New York state.

And then there is sand art - the "most famous" is Sudarsan Pattnaik - he has received dozens of awards for his sea shore sand art. He has his own sand art institute. Many of his sculptures are three-dimensional. Simon Beck, of snow fame above, has entered this realm as well. Andres Amador, based in San Francisco is another sand artis who draws large-scale patterns in the ocean sand. As you can imagine, these are temporary. Pictures of his work are HERE.

We started this journey with Nico Laan back in November. His work is created in the sand at the sea shore. His website says: "An anamorphosis is a representation that you have to look at from a specific point of view. With 3D objects this gives a spatial effect and with flat subjects a certain 'friction'. Later on I started to focus more on 'ordinary' drawings, which do not require a special point of view. The challenge lies in finding a camera position in which landscape and drawing reinforce each other."

Our Niagara Blossom Trail has started. The first two pictures are on Stewart Road - that's on the NOTL side of the Welland Canal just south of the Lakeshore Road. I wonder if this orchard is Apricots as I have seen only a few early ornamental cherries in bloom in front gardens. Yesterday's sky was excellent - beautiful blue sky to the north and dark grey to the south. I drove on Church Road, and found this uprooted orchard. It looks like a horrible natural disaster to see these scenes. But as the many transport trucks drive along Stewart Road, it is a reminder of the industrialization of all things. Maybe that's what got me looking into the foot artists today - those who work in the landscape itself.