Sand Sculpture competition is a big success

Sand-sculpting expert Meredith Carson (right) shows
Amaya how to craft the sand using a special plastic
tool during the Sand Sculpting Competition events last
week. Photo: Christopher Tobutt

The Simpson family from Scotland were the overall
winners in the sand sculpture competition, with their
creation called the Loch Ness Monster

Expert sand sculptor Meredith Carson with her own
sand-sculpture depicting a local coral reef

Thursday, August 12, 2004

This year’s Sand Sculpture Competition, which was organised by the National Gallery, proved hugely successful last Saturday at West Bay Public Beach.

The overall winners of the competition were the Simpson family with their sculpture called ‘Loch Ness Monster’. “My family are all from Galloway in Scotland,” said father Andrew Simpson, “so we thought that a Loch Ness Monster would be a good idea.”

Winner of the Child category was Elizabeth Wauchope with her sculpture, Mt Fuji Volcano, and coming first in the Team category was Manuela Gabriella and Nathan Dack, with their sculpture of a car.

Four of the crew of the visiting US coastguard ship the Resolute were the winners in the Organisation category, with their magnificent sculpture of a ship.

This year, The National Gallery asked Meredith Carson, a sand-sculpting expert from Treasure Island, Florida, to hold some workshops for two days before the competition so that she could demonstrate sand sculpting techniques using special plastic sand-sculpting tools.

Meredith also spent three days working on her own sculpture, a coral reef scene, to generate interest in the art form and encourage questions about sand sculpting from the public.

“I chose the underwater reef because of the diving around here,” she said. “Everything in the sculpture is indigenous to the area.”

Meredith’s sculpture showed such marine life as a grouper, an eel, sponge coral, a crab, and an stingray.

“The sand is different every time, so you work with what you have,” she said. “This is soft sand, and it lends itself to organic sculptures with rounded forms. It is more difficult to do buildings with straight edges here.”

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