Sand Painting - ""S.S. Canberra Returning To Portsmouth From The
Falklands"" By Environmental Sand Artist Brian Pike, By Sandpainter
Brian Pike

Product Description

Mixed media/collage (As a young lad immersed in many happy memories of holidays on the Isle of Wight, eventually in the late sixties my wife & I moved with our young family from Croydon to Carisbrooke. For a number of years we enjoyed a more convivial & productive lifestyle before moving back to Hampshire as our family outgrew the constraints of life on the Isl&. It was while living on the island my favourite uncle encouraged me to further a self-taught interest in the craft of creating permanent paintings in sand which is also called ' Marmotinto', & in the early days Alum Bay provided a wide range of coloured sand for my purpose. So after further research & trips to Russell Coates & the V. & A. Museum to view the late Queen Mary's collection of Georgian sand paintings by Benjamin Zobel & others I was able to develop my own unique techniques in the craft using modern methods & materials & to widen the palette of natural coloured sands which were available from the cliffs in Alum Bay, I also undertook regular geological field trips around the south of Engl&. Fortunately since I use sterilized, discarded swan & geese feathers as 'brushes' there are plenty of those to choose from together with other found materials
- while to add to my green credentials, plywood offcuts obtained free of charge from packing case makers are used as my canvasses. The first display of my work was in the window of the Abbey National in Newport on the Isl&, & when in 1974 the Abbey opened a new branch in Ryde, they commissioned a series of four sand paintings of Island views to be built into the counter front of the branch which attracted press interest & led to a number of exhibitions, commissions & television appearances backed up with written 'how to do it' articles for various craft magazines although at the time the craft was very much a hobby & never pursued as vigorously as I would have liked. In the mid-seventies I was Group Financial Controller of a commercial boatbuilding facility & I met ' The Iron Lady', Mrs. Thatcher in our boardroom at Cowes on the Isle of Wight where my sand paintings were being displayed to help liven up the proceedings. She particularly enjoyed a sand painting I had based on a Victorian etching of Yaverland House by Isle of Wight artist George Brannon & she was presented with the picture as a lasting memento of the event. It is since retiring from financial & management accounting that I am now able to devote more time to marketing the results of my endeavours both in England & France as well as exploring the many facets of the art & environmental history of manipulating s&, & to encourage others have published numerous articles in D.I.Y. & general interest magazines & thanks to the web improve public awareness via ' Wikipedia' & ' Wikicllecting' of a craft which seems to re-invent itself on a regular basis never failing to fascinate both the young & old alike. Over the years my pictures have made exceptional purchases for the home or office or as a gift for a special occasion since they are original conversation pieces in their own right. in so doing I have created a series of truly unique & quirky sand pictures to complement homes & offices & are ideal as conversation pieces particularly popular with shrewd buyers & collectors! I also undertake individual commissions for clients, so please contact me with any queries you may have. while the longevity of the pictures proves ideal for collectors of the unusual & quirky to add to their collections. ) 55.88 × 45.72 × 1.91 cm (framed) / 49.53 × 46.99 × 0.25 cm (unframed)