A world of make believe is taking shape in Castlegar as Sculpturewalk’s annual Sandsations! event began in earnest in front of the Pioneer Arena (on Columbia Ave) on Thursday, July 4.
Artists John McKinnon, Peter Vogelaar, Denis Kleine and David Ducharme were hard at work (with assistants) creating four sand sculptures based on the theme, Fairy Tales.
The Sculptures will be completed by Sunday, July 7 and will be up all summer. The sand was provided by the city's public works department and was getting rave reviews from the artists.
"These last two piles we received are deluxe sand," said Vogelaar. "It's super-fine, no rocks and when it stacks it stays up. I'm sure people in Castlegar are always amazed at how long they last and these ones should last even longer."
Alex Avelino, Vogelaar's assistant, said the piece they were working on was "The Frog Prince" and they recently completed a piece in Calgary for Westjet.
"It was a promotional piece for new flights to Nanaimo and Fort St. John, so it was a sculpture of an oil rig for Fort St. John and a lighthouse for Nanaimo," said Avelino. "It had the new plane they have, with clouds and the Calgary landscape; it was quite good."
Avelino added he usually works with wax as a medium but loves sand and hopes to work with it permanently.
David Ducharme's daughter, Hazel, said she and her dad were building a piece title, "The Emperor's New Clothes."
Ducharme's sculptures can be found in many places on the net: www.sculptureducharme.com, www.amazingsand.com and www.snowsculptue.com.
For more info about the many other sculptures in Castlegar, visit www.sculpturewalkcastlegar.com