Thursday, January 14, 2010

Pearly snowdrops drops

In my post last week on garden art, I bemoaned the unsuitability of the snow we'd had for making any sort of "art". We've now had some sticky snow and I've been out making ephemeral art.*

It was my first attempt and I made one or two beginner's mistakes.

1. Long grass and poorly raked up leaves tend to collect in the snow as you roll it around the lawn, giving your piece of art a ragged appearance;
2. Using gardening gloves to keep your hands dry is a great idea. However, if you're working with snow, clean all the mud off your gardening gloves first.


I have entitled the work "Snowdrop". I don't think I'll be worrying the Andy Goldworthys and Richard Shillings of this world. However, I like a challenge, so I am going to try and produce one seasonal piece of ephemeral art each month this year. Hopefully I'll have improved by December. The only way is up.


*It was very ephemeral - I looked out of the window a couple of hours later to discover that it had fallen over. I blame Bill the cat - he was hanging around looking shifty.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gosh, it is great, Happy! You are a true artist, shame on shifty Bill. ;-)
Frances

Randy Emmitt said...

Great ideal to make a new piece of art in your yard. Maybe next time make it much larger and it'll last longer. Anyway you made my day with your winter time fun!

Carol said...

What a terrific idea! Rather like the beautiful sand paintings of the Tibetans. Beautiful job HM! Inspiring!

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

That's an awesome effort! The professional snow sculptors build a wooden form/box, fill it with snow, pack it down & then carve. That tends to avoid the mud effect. (Not that I've ever tried it.)

Helen/patientgardener said...

Very impressive - I just hid from the snow. Waiting to see what your next project will be

Unknown said...

I love the way that your garden art was VERY ephemeral! lol!

You never can trust cats can you?

Ryan

Wendy said...

fun! Your snowdrop looks great!

Plant Mad Nige said...

Now that is elegant. A lovely shape. Your cat bears an uncanny resemblance to one of ours.

Nutty Gnome said...

Love it!
We only did snowmen ...the first one turnmed into a gargoyle and the second one has slumped and not has a bum worthy of Beyonce! I think I need to try snow sculpturing.

What is Ceefer cat doing in your garden?!

Joanne said...

You could start a new craze on blogs except the snow has nearly gone and I'd rather be indoors but your simple shape looked very good.

HappyMouffetard said...

Frances, thanks for your kind words, but I think I may need a little more practice!

Randy - thanks for visiting. All the snow has gone now (which I'm rather glad about);

Carol, - thanks for the info about sand art - I've just looked it up.

MMD - thanks, if it snows again (I hope not), I'll try that, to avoid the lovely brown tinge.

PG - I've got a few ideas for the next project. Probably involving moss, as I have an awful lot of it in the garden at the moment.

Ryan - quite! Perhaps I'll make the next one cat proof.

Wendy - thanks for your comment.

Nigel - Thank you. We've got another cat the same. Sometimes the white cat from a few doors down meets up with Bill and it's a bit like seeing Cat and Anti-Cat. I worry that if they touch, the universe will end.

NG - a snow gargoyle sounds great fun.

Joanne - thank you. I might set up a blogger's ephemeral art challenge when it gets a bit warmer and lighter.

Stone Art's Blog said...

Lovely work :)