We went for a Sunday morning walk along the River Wye just south of our village, at Builth Wells, and immediately upon joining the footpath we noticed something a little strange in the water just near the bridge. As we moved nearer it became clear that a stone balancing artist had been having some fun and the ducks were enjoying a new playground.
This is quite a fast moving river (and in fact I saw a big fish leap clear of the water right next to the stones) and currently not as shallow as it often can be in the summer, so it must have taken quite some time and some balancing of himself for the artist to pull this off.
I really enjoy land art (not sure of the correct term) such as Andy Goldsworthy achieves and stone balancing goes way back in this tradition. Its sculpture in its rawest form, using nature and harming nothing - in fact nature swiftly reclaims her materials.
This artists left a sign naming his work as 'Quest of Balance' with the initials I.J.P. I salute you, I.J!
By the way, I have had a go with some stones and pebbles in the garden and I did achieve my own standing stones - after some effort. If you'd like to see some really fine balancing art please see Adrian Gray's work HERE. There's a gallery to click on.
5 comments:
How clever to do that in the middle of a river. I saw some along the edge of a river this summer and that looked hard enough. Thanks for sharing :)
Hi,Gillian,
Ohhh! Thank you for sharing the beautiful photos. Very interesting and well matched to birds. I admire YOUR sense of humour!
Cheers,Sadami
What a fun discovery to make! Too bad I.J.P. doesn't know their art has gone viral on the web and the happiness it brings.
What a wonderful feat for I.J.P. Thank you, Gillian, for sharing the river art!
Interesting post, Gillian! Thanks for sharing the photos too!
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