Held annually on April 22, Earth Day celebrates our planet and raises awareness of environmental issues. Learning about and making “land art”―an art form made with nature in nature―seems like an ideal way to join the celebration.
Land art goes by a number of different names including earth art, environmental art, environmental sculpture, nature art, earthworks and ephemeral art. It is created in a natural environment using rocks, plants, water, soil and other natural materials found on site. Photographs of the artwork become the only lasting record because land art is typically allowed to decay and return to the earth. The fleeting, short-lived quality of the art is part of its appeal.
There are several talented land artists who share their amazing work on Instagram. Interestingly, most of the land artists I follow are based in England, Wales and Ireland.
Mayumi Nakabayashi, who is based in Ireland, often uses plant material to create stunning land art like this beautiful leaf mandala.
Beach4Art, Ieva Slare & Dzintars Slars and their children, create beautiful designs with materials found at the beach in Devon England. Check out their amazing Spring Butterfly creation.
Nikola Faller, of Slama Land Art, is based in Croatia but he creates spectacular works, like this stunning sand drawing, around the world.
Scottish land artist Laurence Winram, of Shaped Nature, often uses leaves and other vegetation to create his splendid, ephemeral works. Notice how this work differs from the previous examples in that the leaves are arranged on the trunk of the tree instead of lying flat on the ground.
One of my favorite land artists is based in Wales. Jon Foreman, of Sculpt the World, creates spectacular land art often using only stones and sand. But in this work, called Mushroom Path, he adds another dimension by carefully balancing stones on sticks. Wow!
All of these examples show site-specific artwork made with natural materials. Inspired by the creativity I decided to give land art a go. My pieces are, of course, not nearly as sophisticated or elaborate as those created by the artists I follow. They were, however, a lot of fun to create. The first one is a simple spiral made of leaves.
I really like this view showing the trees, small mounds, moss and pine needles surrounding the leaf spiral.
Here are a few more shots from different angles.
My second attempt―a simple mandala―is made with materials I gathered on site including an acorn cap, leaves, lichen and birch bark. Finding the ideal materials and creating a pleasing arrangement was very relaxing.
My third attempt was a little more ambitious. The idea was to weave together lichen and birch bark into a sort of “wall hanging” that could be displayed vertically. I’m quite pleased with how this one turned out.
Come to think of it, I have attempted land art in the past―I just didn’t know it was called “land art”. For instance, a few years ago I staged this checkerboard arrangement with birch bark on a moss-covered tree stump.
According to Wikipedia, “Perhaps the best known artist who worked in this genre was Robert Smithson whose 1968 essay “The Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects” provided a critical framework for the movement … His best known piece, and probably the most famous piece of all land art, is the Spiral Jetty (1970) [shown below], for which Smithson arranged rock, earth and algae so as to form a long (1500 ft) spiral-shape jetty protruding into Great Salt Lake in northern Utah, U.S.”
Andy Goldsworthy is another well-known land artist. “A sculptor and photographer, Andy Goldsworthy not only works with nature, but in nature” reports The Art Story website. “Goldsworthy works almost telepathically with nature, rearranging its natural forms in such a way as to enhance rather than detract from their beauty. Often quite small in scale, his poetic site-specific pieces are made from ephemeral or organic materials – dandelion flowers lain in a ring or icicles perched on a rock – and then documented through gorgeous color photographs. Goldsworthy views the inevitable death and decay in his work as part of the life cycle – he takes an environmentalist’s approach, lending an utmost respect toward the natural world as most of his pieces gradually fade away into the land from which they’ve come.”
In the example below, notice how Goldsworthy leverages the stillness of the water’s surface to create a perfect reflection of his sculpture.
The book, The Inspiration of Landscape: Artists in National Parks, by Brian Redhead includes Andy Goldsworthy as one of eleven artists who were commissioned by the Artists in National Parks project several years ago in England and Wales. “When he starts work he does not know what he is going to make or where he is going to work. Every day is a new discovery. He sets off and walks until he sees something he wants to work with, to understand.”
In his book, Land Art, author and land artist Richard Shilling shares the story of how he was inspired by Andy Goldsworthy’s sculptures. He writes “I was so entranced by the beauty and magic of his sculptures that I soon bought all the books I could find and had trouble tearing my eyes away from them. No other artist has ever had such an affect on me before and I was hooked.”
Here’s an example of Shilling’s work, called Traffic Lights for River Traffic, made with multi-colored leaves. He explains “The red one is made from copper beech leaves, the yellow and green from rhododendron. … I wanted to do something with water … First I thought about making the discs so they were parallel with the water but the light shining through them was too much to resist.”
Shilling shares “Thorns and dried grass stalks were used to pin it all together. … The use of thorns led onto taking my work into the vertical plane and as I went upright I started to bring into my sculptures the interaction of the sun and with that … deep dives into the mechanics and experiences involved around environmental processes beyond just the materials. This became the most important aspect of what I do: the rotation of the earth, the behaviour of the atmosphere, chasing clouds and changing humidity as just a few examples. As well as all sorts of designs based on frames and thorns and a 3 dimensional canvas beyond what is possible laying things on the ground.”
Shilling also creates land art sculptures from balanced stones. Here’s an example of his incredible work!
Michael Grab, of Gravity Glues, is another masterful “balance artist”. Here’s an example of his astounding work from Instagram.
Regular readers may recall my previous blog post, Heaps and Stacks of Stone, in which I wrote about stacked stone towers, stone balancing and inuksuk. Most of the structures featured in that post, including my rudimentary attempts shown below, would also be considered land art.
While researching this blog post, I discovered annual festivals celebrating land art are held around the world including in Mongolia, Switzerland, Croatia, Netherlands and Ireland. Two of the biggest festivals seem to be the European Land Art Festival and Stone Stacking Championships held in Dunbar Scotland and the Llano Earth Art Fest and World Rock Stacking Championships held in Llano Texas USA. I was intrigued to discover both of these festivals combine land art and stone stacking competitions.
The European Land Art Festival website stresses the importance of “playing freely in nature”. Their goal is “to share the positive benefits of witnessing, or creating land art [and]… to introduce it to as many people as we can, especially to children”.
They go on to explain: “We’re now all aware of the health benefits of being in nature both physical and mental. … Land art is such a powerful tool as not only is it enjoyable but it’s the ultimate mindful practice. [For instance,] if you are stacking stones there’s no way to do this without focussing the mind completely.”
More Info
Previous blog posts mentioned in this blog post include:
. Heaps and Stacks of Stone.
Earth Day, orchestrated by EARTHDAY.ORG, is observed annually on April 22. With a “mission to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide”, EARTHDAY.ORG has worked with “more than 150,000 partners in over 192 countries to drive positive action for our planet” since the first Earth Day in 1970. See the EARTHDAY.ORG website for more information.
The following land artists are mentioned in this blog post:
. Mayumi Nakabayashi ― see Instagram account
. Beach4Art / Ieva Slare & Dzintars Slars ― see Instagram account
. Slama Land Art / Nikola Faller ― see Instagram account
. Shaped Nature / Laurence Winram ― see Instagram account
. Sculpt the World / Jon Foreman ― see website or Instagram account
. Andy Goldsworthy ― see website or Instagram account
. Richard Shilling ― see website or Instagram account
. Gravity Glues / Michael Grab ― see website or Instagram account.
The following books and articles were consulted in the writing of this blog post:
. Andy Goldsworthy article on The Art Story website
. The Inspiration of Landscape: Artists in National Parks book by Brian Redhead which is available here on Internet Archives
. Land Art book by Richard Shilling which is available here on Internet Archives
. Various Wikipedia entries.
The photograph, Viewing Robert Smithson Spiral Jetty on June 18 2018, is available here on Commons Wikimedia.
See the European Land Art Festival and Stone Stacking Championships website for information about this annual event held in Dunbar, Scotland.
See the Llano Earth Art Fest and World Rock Stacking Championships website for information about this annual event held in Llano, Texas, USA.
Please note: As pointed out on the European Land Art Festival website, “Nature provides the materials. We advocate creating responsibly and causing no harm. We recommend taking down stone stacks when finished.”
Today’s Takeaways
1. Land art, also called earth art, environmental art, environmental sculpture, nature art, earthworks and ephemeral art, is made with nature in nature.
2. Photographs of the artwork become the only lasting record because land art is typically allowed to decay and return to the earth. The fleeting, short-lived quality of the art is part of its appeal.
3. “We’re now all aware of the health benefits of being in nature both physical and mental. … Land art is such a powerful tool as not only is it enjoyable but it’s the ultimate mindful practice.” European Land Art Festival website.
