Create some beautiful, simple land art using natural materials based on the wonderful sculptures of artist Andy Goldsworthy!
Andy Goldsworthy is a British artist and sculptor who creates huge pieces of land art in the environment, using all natural objects such as pebbles, twigs, branches, pine cones, mud, leaves and petals. He said “my remit is to work with nature as a whole” and he has gone a long way to shaping the way we view natural art installations today.
Here are some examples of his simple, elegant art in nature, using branches, twigs and pebbles. He also said that photographing his work is the perfect way to capture it for a lifetime and to showcase it to others, so that makes it even more simple and effective as an art activity for young children- completely temporary in real life, but captured for ever on film.
For our Kids Get Arty project this month, hosted alongside Red Ted Art, we decided to have a go at creating our own land art inspired by these works. They are so simple and easy to create that we have been able to do these while on holiday, as they require no additional materials at all! What a perfect way to add memories to a family walk, day out or vacation by creating art together!
The girls gathered whatever they could find in the garden around the house in Italy. We found long strips of smooth, scented Eucalyptus bark, thin shiny leaves, huge piles of soft pine needles and plenty of round pine cones. They gathered what they could into baskets or by the armful, and set about creating shapes and patterns together on the flagstones.
Between them they created three land art masterpieces! I love how the pine cone sculpture follows the outline shape of one of the flagstones so perfectly. And the “filling in” of the triangle of bark with the pine needles is just wonderful!
Have YOU ever created some land or natural art? I’d love to see a photo posted to my Facebook wall!
Check out this beautiful post about land art by The Chocolate Muffin Tree here (and then read the rest of her wonderful site too!)
Please check out the other wonderful ideas that are linked to Kids Get Arty this month and feel inspired to learn about famous artists with your own children! You MUST see the amazing Hockney-inspired photo montage from Red Ted Art, it’s genius!
If you liked this you may like to see our Mondrian Inspired Collage too!
Thanks for the shout out.This post is beautiful! I sooo love land art and Andy Goldsworthy. I could be a land art artist. I will be doing land art with my High School Art Students next year.
What a wonderful way to spend the day with your kids. Thank you for these beautiful ideas. Had to tweet and share on facebook, too!
This is such a lovely post and thank you so much for introducing me to Andy Goldsworthy! Art that can be practiced anytime, anywhere – just wonderful! You can see the concentration in the photo of your artists.
Beautiful! I loved using Andrew Goldsworthy as inspiration in the classroom… this has reminded me that I should start using it with my little one when we are out camping! Thank you for the reminder and amazing photo’s of your little one’s work.
Hiya, just came across your site today on a recommendation from a friend. I love the artwork you all came up with. We’ve tried Andy Goldsworthy type art a few times, it looks so simple, but I am never as pleased with it as I could be. I think less is more in my case! The kids love doing it and we did some beach art recently too which went down really well.
My daughter – age 16 – just showed me Andy Goldworthy last year (where have I been?) What the children made looks beautiful and makes me want to go out and play right now. Love your site change – it really showcases how many ideas you have here.
Anna your girls are just so beautiful!!! Nevermind the art! 🙂 Andy Goldsworthy is a wonderful artist to explore – especially at this time of year when so many people are out and about enjoying the ahem good weather (yes, we finally have a bit of sun in the UK!).
I think I will be adding Goldsworthy to our “exploration list”!!
Thanks for co hosting!
Maggy
He’s awesome.
Ikr