A chance meeting a number of weeks ago with Mark Anderson, Weymouth’s very own resident sand sculptor, led to me popping down to SandWorld – the UK’s only indoor all season Sand sculpting exhibition centre. Situated just next to the well known Sealife Centre in the Lodmoor Park, SandWorld opened its doors last Saturday 31st March with its new themed exhibits.
Celebrating the Olympic theme this year with Weymouth & Portland hosting this years sailing events, Mark invited over some good friends and fellow master sculptors to work on their own Olympic masterpieces. American John Dowdy flew in from Italy to create his interpretation of “Perseus slaying Medusa”, whilst Irishman Fergus Mulvany created a wonderful depiction of the “plight of Icarus”. It was awe inspiring to watch these guys work over a two week period creating these exhibits, each day seeing them develop and then to be absolutely bowled over with the finished sculpture. I still cant get over all the work that goes into them and then to think that its only sand, this art is only for the moment – one knock and it returns to its natural state, sand particles on the ground.
The focal piece of the exhibition that greets everyone upon extering the exhibition hall is the “Trials of Hercules” – carved by Brad Goll. Acclaimed to be his best work to date, it really is something to stand infront of an appreciate.
Apparently the process for mixing the sand and water creates a great mass with which to work and sculpt, and left sheltered by the elements will last for a few years. So they say when they instruct the young apprentices that get to work (play) in the outside sandpit area.
SandWorld really is a wonderful Dorset attraction, whether you are a tourist or a local looking to spend some time with the kids playing in a safe, sheltered environment. Serving great coffee and good food, this family run enterprise is great value for money offering real,value for money family season tickets whilst at the same time inspiring the young and old alike. After visiting SandWorld, building sandcastles will never be the same again!
The selected images give a good impression of what its all about and should really spur you on to get yourself down to SandWorld to check it out for yourselves. They are constantly updating their exhibits and you will often find the master sculptors working on current masterpieces, you never know you may even bump into me as the Editorial Photographer Dorset capturing the latest creation. I really enjoyed the project and making the images, that I hope will get them the publicity they deserve. It has been put forward to the national & international media and will certainly go some way in putting Mark Anderson & SandWorld on the map. Do check out their Facebook page for updates and offers and why not become a fan!
Wow, these are incredible! What a great thing to be able to document 🙂
Those are amazing – although I’m sure those kids are looking at them just wishing they could get in there and jump around