Have you ever built a sandcastle you were particularly proud of? Well, if you have you’ll definitely appreciate this story.
There’s an artist out there who creates amazing sculptures out of sand that look just like the real thing. You absolutely won’t believe your eyes when you see his amazing creations. And here I thought my sandcastles were great. Ha, ha!
Andoni Bastarrika is a true one of a kind artist who makes his art out of an unusual medium: the sand.
His work usually revolves around nature and he especially loves to create animals out of his favorite medium. Wow!
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He started working with sand back in 2010 while hanging out on the beach with his daughters.
So naturally, his first creation was a mermaid. Ha, ha! Needless to say, his work has definitely evolved a lot since then. Oh, yes.
His process starts out by working with wet sand. Then, he starts forming it to develop a particular shape.
Once he decided on what he’s going to make he then starts carving out details with a sharpened stick. Quite incredible.
Depending on the color and shape of the sculpture he may add some other materials to the mixture of the sand.
Clay powder, coal, powder, stone powder, and ashes are all materials he uses. This allows him to make the creature as realistic as possible.
As you can imagine, this work is quite time-consuming.
So some pieces can take Bastarrika about six hours while others can take up to a few days to create. Talk about a pretty intense commitment if you ask me.
Some of Bastarrika’s works are there to send an environmental message to people.
He wants people to see what happens to nature when we don’t take good care of it. I think that’s so important for all of us to remember.
Bastarrika focuses on animals as subjects of many of his pieces because he wants to celebrate their free-spirited nature.
He also believes that animals are much wiser than we give them credit for, and that we could all learn from them.
He will never depict an animal that is chained or is adorned with any objects.
He prefers to show them as they are in their pure, beautiful, and natural state. I can’t get over how amazing and realistic they look.
I’m absolutely blown away by this talented man.
His animal creatures look as if they were just there right on the beach. I bet many people do a double-take when they stumble upon Bastarrika’s work while taking a stroll on the beach.
